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News entry

Jul 15, 2008. 0.9.8-release is out

I have been frequently put to shame for Sphinx release schedule and version numbering. Indeed, taking into the account the typical amount of features and fixes per snapshot, most if not all of so-called snapshots in 0.9.8 branch could likely qualify for a separate release, receive their very own minor version tags, etc.

We are going to work on that. But even the longest journey begins with a first step. Time to make that step.

Over 15 months, over 700 revisions, and about 70 new features since the previous "release" tag, Sphinx 0.9.8-release is finally out. As usual, source tarball and Win32 binaries are available in the Downloads section.

The complete list of new features since 0.9.7 is available in the documentation. With 70 entries, it's too big to copy here, and had to be split in several sections for the doc. It does not include bugfixes at all, cause that would make it too big even for the doc. (Also, I'm too lazy to go through all the commits and summarize all the fixes we did over the year).

The complete changelog since RC2 is also in the documentation. (This one includes the fixes.) There were no new features in the engine itself since 0.9.8-rc2, because we intentionally froze it. Nevertheless, we did some additions to the whole package:

  • added Ruby API and pure C API;
  • added network timeout and error parameters to PHP API;
  • added sphinx-min.conf sample file;
  • added --without-iconv switch to configure.

Some trivia about 0.9.8-release:

  • 0.9.8 is revision 1371;
  • 0.9.7 is revision 606;
  • 0.9.8 source size is almost precisely 2 times the 0.9.7 source size;
  • automated testing suite runs 33 tests, 250 subtests (meaning 250 different config variants), and verifies 1695 queries against manually checked reference results;
  • creating the unified documentation, ie. documenting all the sphinx.conf features and API calls, took 5 all-night-long bursts to complete (and then some daylight polishing that does not count);
  • the only bugfix mentioned in the list of changes since 0.9.7 is the fix that enabled Sphinx to run on SPARC and ARM.

Also in the news, we're among the finalists in SourceForge Community Choice Awards 2008! Sphinx is in the shortlists for “Best Project”, “Best Project for the Enterprise”, and, somewhat unexpectedly for me, “Most Likely to Be the Next $1B Acquisition”. Many thanks to all who voted for Sphinx during the nominations! Now is the time to vote again in the 2nd round. There are several quite popular competitors (such as OpenOffice), so please spread the word as much as you can.

As promised, the next update is going to be 0.9.9 alpha. We've already got some nice new features there for you, but need to merge all the fixes from 0.9.8 and eliminate some known crashes. In the meantime, have fun with 0.9.8, be sure to report everything that resembles a bug, and vote for Sphinx again. Thanks!

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