Monday, March 6, 2006 - Mon, 6 Mar 2006

Ever wonder what is involved in releasing a new version of Behold? No? Doesn’t matter. I feel like explaining it.

After the struggle to create a version that is stable (i.e. as many bugs as possible have been removed), I then run through a checklist. (1) I decide on a new version number, and sometimes I argue with myself what that should be. (2) I set the version date in a certain place in the program. (3) I change the file version information and turn off the compiler debugging code in Delphi. (4) I rebuild Behold with Delphi. (5) I code sign the Behold.exe file. This code signing is currently its own 16 step manual procedure, but later I will write a script to handle it. (6) I make updates as necessary to the Readme.txt file. (7) I update the version number in the build setup script, and I run the script. (8) I code sign the Behold-setup.exe program. (9) I update my local copies of the Version History, Future Plans and other Behold webpages to indicate that the new version is out. (10) I upload Behold-setup.exe as well as the new webpages to the Behold website. (11) I open my local version of Behold and make sure that it upgrades properly via the website. (12) I make a backup of the Behold folder and archive it as the code for that version. (13) I update my Behold blog to announce the new release. (14) I send a mailing to all people who have purchased Behold. (15) I send a mailing to trial users of Behold.

All of this usually takes about an hour and a half. Often there is some little glitch along the way. Yesterday, in step 11, Behold wouldn’t update from the web. I found I made a mistake in typing the version number in Step 2. So I had to do Steps 2 to 11 all over again. Then, today I got some e-mails stating that my Behold site was not accessible. It turns out my mailings (steps 14 and 15) had incorrectly listed my site as: kessler.com instead of lkessler.com.

Despite all this, it always is a very good feeling to issue a new release. I hope to get this feeling again many more times in the future. :-)