[swift-users] Feedback on Swift & "is it ready for general release?"

[Steve Kille]

Kev, Remko,

Kev asked for "general progress" in the MUC last night.    As I wanted to
say more than would fit cleanly into an XMPP message,  I decided to write an
email to the list.    I sensed that Kev would like to hear from everyone who
has been using Swift, so I thought this might also get the ball rolling (I
checked this idea with Kev).

Overall,  I think that you have both done an excellent job here.    I think
that there is a real need for a good end user XMPP client, that is not
addressed by any existing clients.    I am keen to see a free XMPP client
that I can recommend to Isode customers, and I expect Swift to be that
client.

I use Swift for my day to day chat and MUC, and it works great.   My only
personal operational niggle is inability to manipulate groups, but I can
live without it.     

I am keen to see 1.0 released, and Swift opened up for wider adoption.
There is also reason to delay, because if it is released too early, there
will be feedback "it is too buggy" or "what sort of braindamaged XMPP client
does not do XXXX", and this sort of feedback and initial reaction tends to
stick.

In my experience, Swift has been very solid.  I reckon that the list of
"known issues" (http://swift.im/releases/swift-1.0beta4/ ), which I guess
are intended to be addressed before 1.0 reflects a sensible list of things
to achieve before making a release (I could live without some of them), but
there is not a need for much more.

It would be interesting to hear views on this, particularly of the form "I
will start using Swift as my default client when it does XXXX" or "I am
using it already" or "I will never use it because..."


Keep up the good work - I'm looking forward to 1.0



Steve