By Alan S. Koch

It is time for a new build. What should be included in it? Obviously, it should include the latest and greatest versions of each module. Right?

The phrase "latest and greatest" belies an assumption that the latest version of something is automatically the greatest. The latest version adds features, corrects problems, and in short, improves on the versions that preceded it. How could it be anything other than the greatest?

But, in fact, things are often not as great as they seem to be. Those new features may be incompatible with other existing functionality. Things that the users relied upon may have disappeared. The new features may impair usability (especially for novice users). And then there are the bugs that invariably crop up in all of that new and changed code.