Hello,
For what it's worth, you don't actually need to release more frequently to
declare additional versions as current or active. You could still make that
rare, and only do it for very critical issues.
When there is opportunity people will use it, I'd guess.
There still might be value
in declaring some specific earlier releases as stable and current so people
who have specific requirements (like a specific older GCC version or older
Java version) know which versions are appropriate to use.
+1 I'm personally fine with that. Under the premise that I don't get
more work as a result, of course.
Sometimes just
opening the door for users a bit more can help grow the contributor base
that will eventually help with releasing.
Not sure I can follow. Could you explain that a bit more? I somehow miss
the connection between "we now have two more branches actively
maintained" and the unleashed stream of contributions we should expect
as a result. I mean, I would love to see that happen, that's for sure.
Related: is the release prep/staging process automated or documented at all?
Sure. Pretty good actually thanks to Jim King.
https://github.com/apache/thrift/blob/master/doc/ReleaseManagement.md
That was the only documentation I had when I took over that task (more
or less by accident) and I somehow managed to get it done. So that
document can't be too bad :-)
Have fun,
JensG
