Re: [htdig-dev] Release plans?

[Neal R. <ne...@ri...>]

On Sun, 5 Oct 2003, Lachlan Andrew wrote:

> Greetings all,
>
> Neal recently suggested releasing a new interrim release in September.
> Since yet another deadline has passed, could I ask that those who
> hold the "keys" to  www.htdig.org  set some guidelines for when we
> can release the next beta?  It was suggested that we, the developers,
> do that.  The problem is that we can't enforce the timelines...

  Mutiny?  Ok, Pirate Lachlan.  I think the issue is that we don't have a
plan to get it to the next step...

> I vote that, once the Windows  db.words.db  bug is ironed out, we
> release 3.2.0b5 / 3.2.0rc1.  If anyone has a reason *not* to, could
> they please mail it to the group?

  I second this idea and suggest that on next Sunday Oct 12 we
institute a 'code-freeze' and spend the remainder of Oct testing the code
and call it 3.2RC1.  3.2RC1 goes out Sun Nov 2.

Proposed plan:

  Testing would consist of us figuring out some way to divide up
test points.  The basic idea is to go through the process of changing the
configuration file in reasonable ways and indexing/searching to
formally  exercise   those verbs.  Ideally we'd like to test each of the
approx 200 verbs.  A similar method for each executables command-line
switches in needed.

  We could probably vote on proposed changes to default config values.

  Of course we need to test index some websites, but doing that on a large
scale is difficult... I propose we set some reasonable goal here and
handle indexing/parsing bugs as we see them after release.

  The goals for 3.2RC2 are to fix any bugs that come up.  The only
allowable commits in this time-frame are those that fix bugs or cleanup
memory leaks.  When its ready we institute a 'code-freeze' and formally
test the parts affected by bug fixes.. At the end of this we can vote
for calling it 3.2 final.

  The next step would be devoting ourselves to quickly handling bugs that
come in from users from some specified period and release '3.2.1'.  I put
this in so we don't leave all this work up to Gilles, our devoted
maintainer of 3.1.X.

  Formal testing is yucky and delays us stamping it 3.2-final, but I'd
rather spend a month doing this than see silly errors found by a
score of endusers.

  The next step would comming up with a test plan, basically a list of
test points so we can divvy up the work.  This needs to be complete by
next weekend.

Thanks.

Neal Richter
Knowledgebase Developer
RightNow Technologies, Inc.
Customer Service for Every Web Site
Office: 406-522-1485