The last few weeks have been busy behind the scenes. LL promoted the Simple Cache viewer as 6.4.14 however it rapidly became clear that this viewer had sufficient previously undetected issues that the official viewer release was Why is this release numbered 6.4.16? Now there’s a question…
In terms of the underlying LL codebase this is effectively another 6.4.13 release (ie building on the Jellydoll release).
However, to understand why this is a 6.4.16 we need to review recent events. The first point to make is that we have a policy that we usually ship with the release number that matches the underlying LL codebase (unlike some TPVs which tend to ship with the version number after the one they’re based on). We use this principle to make releases easy to understand - LL’s 6.4.13 improved Jellydolls, so Kokua’s 6.4.13 does the same. If we were to use the next number each time there would be the situation where LL release a 6.4.14 with some new features but those features would not appear in Kokua 6.4.14 and only appear in Kokua 6.4.15 which gets confusing for all concerned. More confusingly still, this Kokua 6.4.15 would be lacking whatever gets released as LL’s 6.4.15. And so on…
Having established that principle let’s go over recent events.
LL released a 6.4.14 by promoting the Simplified Cache RC (Release Candidate) viewer to released status
Very soon after it became clear that this release had some serious bugs and LL reverted to 6.4.13
...
The decision was taken to unwind the Simple Cache viewer from the history of files that make up the official viewer (I’m simplifying a little there to avoid getting into too much detail about source code management) which became notionally a 6.4.15 release (despite being otherwise identical to 6.4.13). In additional LL’s automated processes incremented the version number again so at the time of writing the next LL viewer looks like being 6.4.17. However, there is an outside chance that one of the other Release Candidate viewers will be promoted. These are currently all 6.4.14 too.
In the event that LL do release another 6.4.14 based on one of the other RCs we will hold our version number at 6.4.16 until we are back in alignment with the official LL release version.
...
as the official release
This left LL with a problem - whether to power on through the problem by fixing Simplified Cache and reissuing it or to return it to development/testing and go with a different RC viewer as the next release
However, this causes a problem for the source code of the viewer. At the time of 6.4.14’s release its code became the basis on which all future development would occur, meaning that while the official release download could simply be reverted more complex surgery was needed on the source code to achieve the same effect
The situation was complicated by Third Party Viewers (Kokua included) having taken the official release as the cue to merge that code into their own codebase, thus for a while we were expecting to release a Kokua 6.4.14
LL opted to revert the changes introduced by 6.4.14 - this change consumed a version number thus 6.4.15 is a non-entity corresponding to reverting 6.4.14.
LL’s automated processes resulted in an additional increment of the version number with the result that it currently sits at 6.4.16 and the next released viewer (which is looking likely to be the Keymappings RC) will be a 6.4.17.
So… with LL expected to release a 6.4.17 next, we are releasing this as 6.4.16
(A note for the experts: I have simplified this explanation a bit. LL’s policy is to increment the viewer version number in the source code immediately after any release is done thus while 6.4.14 was on release, the file was set at 6.4.15. Similarly, the file is now set at 6.4.17 so that potential next releases embody that version number. When we merge from LL’s sources after a release occurs we take care to only merge up as far as the commit before the version number gets incremented to begin the next development cycle)
Although there is no new LL code featured in this release there are a number of other new items in this release.
Contact Sets have been ported from Firestorm - see Contact Sets for more information on the feature and the differences between the Kokua port and the original.
A new toolbar icon for Personal Lighting has been added and can be configured onto one of the toolbars if desired.
The statistics bar graphs that can be shown near the time on the status bar have been extended with three new bar graphs that allow an instant view of the current region's health in respect of running scripts. For more detail see Additional Status Bar bargraphs
The ability to toggle the crouching position has been ported over from Firestorm. The option for this is on Preferences > Move which has now been split into three tabs due to overcrowding
The ability to mark any folder as a System Folder (so promoting it to the first group of folders and protecting it from deletion) has been ported from Catznip
The ability to see a place or avatar profile from the minimap menu has been ported from Firestorm
...