question reg cpg1.4.6 announcement

[blabla]

The Coppermine dev team announces the release of cpg1.4.6.
The new release does not contain new features (compared to previous versions of cpg1.4.x), but contains fixes for several minor issues. [...] All Coppermine users are strongly encouraged to upgrade their coppermine version as soon as possible.
from http://forum.coppermine-gallery.net/index.php?topic=31671.0

I need to upgrade my site - but this above made me wonder if I need to go via cpg1.4.5 as 1.4.6 doesn't have all features? (i found that statement to be very strange - a new version but lacking all features??)

Also is it certain this version 1.4.6 is stable? Before you hit me over the head - I'm wondering due to the fact that this is to be found in the Documentation:

3.7 Downgrading from cpg1.4.x to an older version
CPG1.4.x incorporates many new features (compared to older versions), so we encourage all users to upgrade. However, there may be some who want to test cpg1.4.x and decide later that they want to go back to an older version. You have to keep in mind that a full upgrade changes the overall layout of coppermine's database that includes converting the encoding to unicode. This process can't be reverted: once you have done the conversion, the only way back is to restore a complete mySQL database dump (of course you have to create this backup before you upgraded in the first place). Creating mySQL dumps (backups) is recommended anyway, so you should do so now.

When I do an upgrade I want to be certain that it's stable. I don't want to try out 1.4.6 - I want to do the upgrade and not risque having to redo the site from scratch.  Rebuilding something with 8000 files in 225 albums is not something I even want to chance at.

My site is currently using version 1.3.2 and I have no problems with it, but I want to upgrade before it's too late since you seem to be moving on from the older versions. (I also have only 1 site moderator beside me allowed to upload pictures - it keeps things safer)

Thanks for a useful and very good gallery software

[Joachim Müller]

Well, re-read the announcement then, maybe it's a language issue for you: cpg1.4.6 doesn't have any new features compared to previous version of the cpg1.4.x! This of course means that it does have all features that previous versions of the cpg1.4.x series have. It doesn't have one more feature nor one less, but exactly them same number of features.
It's a maintenance release, for Christ's sake, it's contains fixes for issues/bugs from previous versions. It's the most stable and reliable version that exists.

The downgrading explanations exist, because there have been users in the past who realized (after upgrading) that they can't use mods for older versions, so they turned up here, asking for instructions how to downgrade because they needed to use those outdated mods. To avoid discussions, we decided to include downgrading instructions in the docs. This doesn't mean that we consider cpg1.4.x unstable. In fact, it fixes several bugs that existed in cpg1.3.x. That's why we create new versions.

i found that statement to be very strange - a new version but lacking all features??

I find your posting very strange, but that's another story