There were some fixes required immediately after release. I'll see if I can find a link to it.

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Like any proactive software company, Safe constantly evolves their product, thus the change in build numbers. Trust me, this is a good thing.

 

 

You have a file in your FME installation directory called "whatsnew.txt" that outlines the changes between (most) builds. If you need further details between specific builds, contact Safe.

 

 

David

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From FME Evangelist Tweet:

New FME 2013 build (13262). Essential updates to Google Fusion + Twitter APIs, plus fixes a slow start-up problem.

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Meanwhile a colleague found a what's new on some ftp download link.

 

 

There it says for 13264:

 

Shape Writer: Fixed crash when rounding decimal numbers (C72843 PR#43695)

 

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Still a bit different ...

 

 

Meanwhile I installed 13264 and checked the whatsnew that is installed with the software.

 

 

There it says no relevant changes after 13262.

 

 

Well, may it be so ...  ~:-(

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There is something strange going on with these whatsnew.txt files.

 

 

On FME2013 build 13264 the file in the installation directory has no info regarding the changes since build 13262, although I know that MySQL support was dropped in build 13264 because of licensing issues with Oracle.

 

 

In the whatsnew.txt found on the ftp server, there is a mention of the shape rounding error, but still no mention of the MySQL support being dropped.

 

 

On the other hand, this is indicated in the whatsnew.txt for the SP1 beta, see: http://downloads.safe.com/fme/beta/whatsnew_sp.txt

 

 

Bizarre...

 

 

I recommend you contact Safe if the changes between build numbers are critical to you.

 

 

David

 

 

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Unfortunately for the last few years, the official release has never actually been official because several minor build releases are always sent out to market in the ensuing weeks. It's predicted practice because it always happens, but it's not helpful for the market as it means customers avoid putting this build into their production enviroment because the versioning changes so much with no clear statement from Safe. The impact is that it means it's quite possible to download FME Desktop 1 day and FME Server the next and have two different builds without immediately realising. This year for a while the build number on the website also didn't match the build that you downloaded, it listed #13264 but you got #13263.   On the plus side, Safe are always quick at implementing changes and the majority of users can react to this change. For those users that have managed IT and need to get software package and through UAT, often having to pay to have this process carried out, never being quite sure about the version they should get packaged on release isn't helpful. I mention these facts to help fill in some gaps and highlight some of the issues that have been raised with me in recent years. FME 2013 is more than worth the effort, but tightening up the release process would be the cherry on the cake.

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Very good point.

 

 

I agree that it is very helpful to have frequent updates as it is handled by Safe for the Beta testing.

 

 

The "weak" point with the "official" releases is, that the communication of differences between Beta versions is clear, but the communication for the "official" releases is a bit "blurry".

 

 

It is not really useful to have soemthing like "official", "more official" and maybe "latest official" releases.

 

 

ESRI, Oracle (and even us) are using Version specifiers with 3 or even 4 digits which indicate the level of changes which happened.

 

 

In that sense the FME releases could be something like

 

    - FME 2013 (build 13261(Jan 15th)):  2013.0.0

 

    - FME 2013 (build 13264 (Feb ??):  2013.0.2

 

 

...and the upcoming SP1 then could be:

 

   - FME 2013 SP1 = 2013.1.0

 

 

Just some ideas from somebody in a similar situation ...

 

Michael

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Hello all,

 

 

Really appreciate the discussion and this is an area we will endeavour to do better in.

 

 

If you go to http://www.safe.com/downloads now, you'll see on the right hand side a link to the what's new for the release, and it has a list of the changes that were made after the official launch day.

 

 

We do not enjoy making any changes afterwards, but this year we were forced to by changes in the Twitter and Google Fusion Tables online APIs that were going to render the FME 2013 release itself unable to work with those online services.  So we went and made some updates as a result, and yes, our communication should have been better. We're exploring having an FME blog where we could communicate such things more fully, and we will do our best to have the whats new always reflect reality.

 

 

Our feeling was that anyone with the original 2013 release was not in any risk unless they hit those issues so we didn't want to reach out to everyone to communicate the change. i.e. this wasn't a "product recall" situation, but rather an attempt to avert some issues down the road. 

 

 

But we will learn and do better.

 

 

Thanks all, we appreciate that you watch us so closely!

 

 

PS: If you've read all this, I can advise that FME 2013 SP1 is wrapping up development next week, and after a bit of burn in, will become the official download. Probably mid March. There will be more fanfare for that for sure.  Some great things being baked into it, things that will enhance productivity even further.

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Very very unhappy after upgrading to build 13450.  I use MySQL very actively in some complex situations here.  Took me a while to figure out what hit me too.  

 

 

Oh well, anyone got a work-around?  

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