Hi,
my opinion on related topics.
LTS
If I see software release marked as LTS then it is promise of developers
to update it for longer time than in regular release.
It means lot of work - backporting fixes, testing, complete release
process. If it is too much burden, let's don't release another LTS NetBeans.
Versioning scheme
Clearly we don't follow semantic versioning (https://semver.org/). So
what it means for user to go from 12.3 to 13.0?
NetBeans is not only for Java, but also supports PHP, HTML, CSS or
JavaScript development.
I would not tie releasing x.0 version only to new Java release. NetBeans
12.3 with full PHP 8 support (thank you Junichi) is major release for
PHP developers ;)
NetCAT process associated with x.0 release can send message "this
release was tested more thoroughly than feature releases".
Release frequency
It's good to have regular releases in shorter time frame. It means fixes
and new features get to users sooner and there is no need for updates
between.
I liked how branching and release of NetBeans 12.2 was managed without
freezing master branch. It is definitively more encouraging for
contribution when you now that PR integration is limited by capacity of
reviewers and not by finishing of release.
I compile NetBeans from master and use them for daily work to test
stability and function.
TL;DR
- drop LTS release
- tie x.0 versions to NetCAT
- keep 4 releases/year instead of update releases for LTS
Tom
On 11. 01. 21 3:16, Laszlo Kishalmi wrote:
Dear all,
I'd like to express my thought about that our 13.0 meant to be next
LTS released in May or early June, does not make much sense.
I have two main reasons:
1. Java 17 LTS will be released in September (around 13.1), so the
timing is less than ideal
2. We still do not know what do we want from an LTS release.
I'd propose release a 12.4 instead, maybe a 12.5 in September
(supporting Java 17) and 13.0 in November, maybe LTS with stable Java
17 support.
Also thinking about dropping LTS as it is. If anyone would like to
step up and support a release longer than the next release, that would
be Ok.
And lastly, I'm feeling that having 4 releases in a year is a bit to
many...
--
Laszlo Kishalmi
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