Now that 2.0.9 is essentially behind us, I think the focus for the next release needs to continue on preventing new regressions and stomping out the old ones. This should take precedence over new features and other "nice to haves" as we still have a significant user base stuck on various releases due to changes and regressions we introduced in the past. There are 27 issues scheduled for .10 currently [1], most of these issues are things that represent regressions introduced in earlier releases and issues with the highest number of votes (usually they are the same). While not set in concrete, we should try to maintain this list and resist the urge to pile in tons of cruft. Only really important issues or regressions should be brought forward to .10
I'd like to aim for starting the release process in 4-6 weeks. We should be cognizant of the no regression plan when fixing any issues so we don't have to chase them down at the end. This means good unit tests and core Its should be introduced for all changes. This is important to build upon to help identify future regressions and more importantly gives us a concrete set of tests to judge 2.1's compatibility. I've found that in many cases the unit tests alone simply aren't good enough to detect issues as we go forward...I think in most cases they just aren't exhaustive enough, but also they don't cover all the interactions and classpath weirdness. As we discussed before, the doxia beta should be introduced to .10 asap so we have time to work out any issues. Thanks, Brian
