On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 9:32 AM, Regina Henschel <rb.hensc...@t-online.de> wrote: > Hi Jürgen, > > Jürgen Schmidt schrieb: > >> Hi, >> >> first of all I would like to volunteer again as release manager for our >> next release if it's ok for our community. > > > +1 > > >> >> Second I would like to define with you what our next release will be. >> After various discussion and activities on the mailing list and also at >> the ApacheCon, I got the impression that the majority would support a >> 4.0 version as our next release. > > > I'm not in favor of an version 4.0 as next release. The changes have listed > below would justify a version "4.0". But I doubt, that they are possible in > a time frame, I see for the next release. > > We have released 3.4.1 in August 2012, so a good time for a next release > would be February 2013. That release would get a lot of bug fixes and new > languages, but no new features. Remembering the difficulties doing releases > around December/January I think, it cannot be earlier. But it should not be > later either for to get the valuable language work as soon as possible. >
I don't think we have the QA capacity to do a full release in February. I'm trying to build up that team with more volunteers, but I'd be concerned that with current levels we could not both do a February release and do the preparatory work we need to do to write up test cases for a bigger 4.0 release. IMHO the new languages are more critical. We don't have any critical bug fixes in the trunk (that I know of). So I wonder if another solution is to release additional languages on the 3.4.1 branch? That kind of mini-release would not require as much retesting, since the code would not change. -Rob > Making larger changes which justify a new major release means at the same > time, we have to say something about end of life of the 3.x series. > > >> >> We are planning some bigger UI changes for the next release (sidebar) >> and such UI changes are always a good indicator for a new major release >> to signal our users bigger changers. I know Ariel has also some >> incompatible changes regarding add-ons in the pipeline that would also >> fit in a major release. > > > Not to forget the internal changes in Draw. > > >> >> I noticed some discussion around a new visual design and a bigger >> rebranding and this is a further reason for a major release. >> >> I think it is time to define this more concrete and focus in more detail >> on the work that is needed and required to bring a good and stable >> release on the road. Our goal should be to continue the success of 3.4 >> and 3.4.1. >> >> If nobody will complain I will start to merge the started 3.5 and 4.0 >> planning into one combined planning later. > > > The changes are so large, that they need a lot of testing. The printing > dialog has been the last large UI change and that has last over a year. Even > when I only take the test time, which is reflected in Bugzilla, I see eight > months "CWS printerpullpages". > > The internal changes in Draw are not visible, but because they effect the > whole office, they need a lot of testing too. > > I do not think, that a good tested release with such changes would be > possible before July. Therefore I argue for not merging the planning, but > release a 3.5 based on the current trunk (approximately) and then a version > 4.0 containing large changes in autumn 2013. > > > I believe it is important >> >> that we concentrate on our next release. If you think a rebranding is >> important and you want to drive it, please start immediately. If you >> want to bring in some new features, please communicate it on the list >> and start working on it. Let us work on the plan for the next release in >> an open and transparent way. > > > Setting a feature freeze day? > > >> >> Besides the next major release we should also continue the discussion on >> further language packs based on 3.4.1 to make the latest translations >> available as soon as possible. >> >> One way to make these language packs available would be to integrate the >> new translations on the AOO34 branch, build the language packs and a new >> source release based on this revision. The effort should be minimal as >> long as we don't integrate bugfixes. >> >> On the other hand a release is of course a lot of work and we can focus >> on releasing these new languages together with 4.0. The question is if >> we do have the resources for releasing the new languages? >> >> Any opinions or feedback? > > > So my suggestion is to not make 4.0 the next release but do a 3.5 release > with bug fixes and further languages in between. > > Kind regards > Regina
