Re: [matplotlib-devel] Building documentation and matplotlibrc

[Benjamin R. <ben...@ou...>]

On Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 3:13 PM, John Hunter <jd...@gm...> wrote:

> On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 6:45 PM, Benjamin Root <ben...@ou...> wrote:
> > John,
> >
> > Just to clarify, have we officially released 1.0.1, or are we still in
> the
> > RC phase?  If we haven't released yet, what is the deadline for final
> > patches for 1.0.1?
> >
>
> 1.0.1 is final but I held off on the announcement until Russel got the
> OSX builds uploaded (which he did yesterday, but I still haven't
> gotten to the announcement).  If there are significant problems (eg
> the 3D stuff you reported or other issues) I have no problem pushing
> out 1.0.2 quickly.
>
> JDH
>

John,

I am fine with letting 1.0.1 go out as is (unless we can't live with the
documentation typos that has shown up).  I am also hesistant about putting
out yet another bug-fix release because there will be distros that will have
1.0.0, 1.0.1, and then possibly others with 1.0.2, which would turn into a
maintenance nightmare.  Instead, let's just let those package maintainers
keep up with the patches to 1.0.1.

This also raises a question.  When putting out maintenance patches, are we
going to have to patch 1.0.0 and 1.0.1?

I think what happened with 1.0.1 is that while there were some clear goals
(solidification of the backend codes and getting the no-download doc feature
working), it also became a bit of a free-for-all for receiving other patches
(I am guilty of this).  Personally, I lost sight of the point of the RCs and
that is to seek out and squash only the show-stopper bugs.  Any other
patches should not go in.

Looking forward, I think there are a couple of things that we can do for the
next release (1.1.0?) that would be greatly beneficial.  First, I think
having a clear and firm (but not set-in-stone) release date is important.
Second, release candidates should probably be made available for a couple of
weeks.  Third, I think when it comes time for a release, there should be at
least one or two other developers agreeing on the release (the purpose of
this is to give a last-chance for any objections, and to share the
responsibility of the release).  Last, there should probably be clearer
goals/milestones for the releases.

I would appreciate any thoughts/comments on this.  We can start up a new
thread if it is more appropriate.

Ben Root