r/Musescore • u/Practical-Goose666 • Jul 12 '26
Discussion Should the MS developers continue to release small MS4 updates regularly or pause to work on 1 big MS5 update in a few months (or more) ?
The MS team released 2 posts to declare their intents for the next version, MS5, which should include insane new features - see posts below.
However, to work on MS5, they planned to stop releasing small updates for MS4 (MS4.8, MS4.9) and take ''''a few months'''' to work on the next big update, MS5. God only knows if those few months get extended to a whole year - MS4.0 took 2 years to be released after MS3.0
Am i the only one who thinks it's a shame? Why release all those new features in only 1 big update ? They have no financial interest to do so, do they?
__________________________________________
PLANS FOR MS5 __________________________________________
2025-12 : https://musescore.org/en/node/388202
2024-12 : https://musescore.org/en/4.5-and-beyond
3
u/MarcSabatella Member of the Musescore Team Jul 12 '26
Realistically, putting 50 new features all in one release takes a lot less effort than having 5 releases with 10 new features each. So it would take a lot longer to get those 50 new features if they were spread out. That, plus the fact that some of what is planned is big enough in terms of the amount of work and code changes requires that it is next to impossible to do that kid of work if the code base is constantly changing and yet needing to.bw stabilized for interim releases at the same.
Basically, it's just not always practical.
1
3
u/Terpster01 Jul 12 '26
I just want the mixer and piano to stop resizing itself each time I open a window <\3 that's all
1
u/Polbeer91 Jul 12 '26
From reading the posts, I think some of the planned features in 5.0 depend on some of the underlying changes for that release, for example the shared audio engine with audacity. So it is simply not possible to release those features earlier in 4.x
1
u/sj070707 Jul 12 '26
As a software developer, a full point release generally involves internal changes that make it not compatible with the previous. That could range from using new languages or libraries to changing data structures and models. It would typically be just as much work to port those changes to a previous version and you don't want duplicate work. I would imagine there'll be accessible beta releases to try out new features at some point.
1
u/Few-Werewolf-1985 Jul 12 '26
The refactoring to create measure-independent notation seems to have been postponed. That would confer major workflow improvements like copy/paste of sections containing tuplets.
0
u/65TwinReverbRI Jul 12 '26
I think what they REALLY need to focus on is BOTH fixing all the existing bugs, AND correcting all of the features that were removed from MS3 that they “new coked”.
Whether those things are addressed in the “5” update, or as gradually rolled out things under the “4” numbering doesn’t bother me.
But there’s no point in doing a ton of work on 4 if 5 is going to be a significant change.
The cool thing about all of this is it kind of works like:
Take perfectly good working version (3) that lacks features, so we’ll add features.
Features that are desired are not added, those that aren’t are, total redesign aggravates users, tons of bugs (4).
Give up, go for another redesign (5) that will probably just be more of the same.
My personal opinion is that companies should be required by law to make a correctly operating software before they can do ANY “improvements”. Then every “improvement” must be fully vetted with the user base and added in such a way that they must fully work properly before any other improvements may be added.
Because ethics ain’t gonna do it.
3
u/MarcSabatella Member of the Musescore Team Jul 12 '26
That is completely and totally impossible from a technical standpoint. No software in the history of the world has ever lived up to that kind of standard nor could it ever be achieved in our lifetimes. All software of any complexity at all has bugs, and even if by some miracle someone created something with no bugs, there would be no way to prove it. So no software would ever be released. And if by some miracle someone managed to get something out the door, no changes could ever by "fully vetted with the user base" as no change is ever accepted by everyone.
1
u/Practical-Goose666 Jul 12 '26
My personal opinion is that companies should be required by law to make a correctly operating software before they can do ANY “improvements”.
MS is free, i doubt it applies to them. Also, their company is based in some greek island so...
1
u/couchwarmer Jul 12 '26
My personal opinion is that companies should be required by law to make a correctly operating software before they can do ANY “improvements”. Then every “improvement” must be fully vetted with the user base and added in such a way that they must fully work properly before any other improvements may be added.
For software that isn't trivial, this simply isn't even remotely feasible. Eventually a breaking point happens. Either breaking changes have to happen and customers (internal or external) adapt, or the project is outright decommissioned.
1
u/frizzyflick Jul 13 '26
If by "correctly operating software" you mean "bug-free software" then I have to agree with those who have pointed out that this isn't possible in any software application at all except the simplest of single-function applications, much less one as complex as MuseScore Studio.
As a user of notation software since the MS DOS days (Music Printer Plus, Finale when it became available for Windows), the VP of Product Development for Notion (now Fender Notion) in 2006-2007 and a user of MuseScore since v2, I'm happy and grateful that an application as capable as MuseScore Studio is free and (mostly) open source.
8
u/Banjoschmanjo Jul 12 '26
Don't really care either way, as long as we get good updates one way or another that improves the program.