One of the things that strikes me here is the difference between
calendar time and effort time. (This assumes folks already concurred
that the rc is ready to release.) Based on my reading of
http://wiki.apache.org/cordova/CuttingReleases there isn't a lot of
effort time involved to cut a release. It seems like a good chunk of the
calendar time is getting folks to tag their platform. Ideally the
promotion from rc to final should take very little effort time.
What I like about the rc is that it provides a settling mechanism for
the churn to calm down, run tests across more integration, and see the
bigger picture to assess release readiness. I would expect that the
promotion from edge to rc should take a decent amount of effort time,
but not because of the "cut" activities.
So when we are at rc and don't find any surprises, why does it take a
week to promote to final? If we spend a week in rc1, another week in
rc2, and another week to cut final, that leaves only 1 week in a 4-week
cycle for active dev work?
I like the ideal of a channel/stream/branch/whatever where there is a
place for the rc to settle without necessarily blocking commits to edge.
Where I'm going with this is that if there is an area where commits to
the rc are carefully controlled, then perhaps one person (i.e, Steve G)
could cut the release for ALL platforms using scripts. This may involve
that one person tagging/branching/whatever across multiple platforms.
I also like putting the "how to cut" magic in each platform. Then
perhaps a good chunk of coho is tests to make sure that the platform
magic delivered the correct format to it.
-- Marcel Kinard
