Just a few thoughts:

* I agree that the tone of the email that started this discussion about software quality standards was unnecessarily critical. Even in production releases, users may find occasional bugs.

* The intent of HHVM implementation and James' quick response to the problem report are nice to see.

* The perfect should not be the enemy of the good, especially for opt-in pre-production releases.

* Regarding standards for different release phases, I would need to think more about that but hope that someone will set up a proposed checklist on MediaWiki.org. We have some quality experts like Chris McMahon and their input would be helpful.

Pine