Re: [Tcllib-devel] Tcllib Release Plan?

[Andreas K. <and...@ac...>]

> Hi all,
>
> just wanted to start the discussion when the next Tcllib release will
> be done.
>
> So, lets toss the open issues into the ring:
>
> 1. When will the next release be done?

If we want to be in time for the conference the release should be a week
before the con starts, latest. Conference is Oct 20-24, so the latest date
for release is Monday Oct 13.

To prepare the release we should allocate a month (4 weeks). The parts
taking most of the time are

	(1)	Testing on a lot of platforms.
	(2)	Going over the modules, their changelogs and writing up which
		packages got changes and how complex (bug fixes, testsuite
		fixes, new features, major api changes), using this info to
		check that the version numbers were/are incremented properly,
		and using the info to write up the README which gives an
		overview of the changes since the last release.

So release work should start Sep 15 latest.

This puts its square at the beginning of my vacation, which is Sep 15 to Sep
26 (*).
Which means I either better start on this on Sep 1, or offload parts to
someone else,
or both.

Anybody volunteering for doing the testing work, or the write up ? (**)

(*) Unusual for me, an end-of-summer vacation.

(**) The testing is easier, the write-up is mind-numbing, going over 88
modules containing that many Changelogs and 249 packages takes time. I am
always pining for sak commands which could make this easier, by
incrementally collecting info from checkins and developers, and then
auto-generating the README and such. I never seem to manage to actually
write them.


> 2. What version should it get?
> 3. Are there pressing issues that should be dealt with until that time?

If we have they should be bumped to priority 9 in the bug tracker.

>  From historical data i would assume there is a release assumed to
> happen before the annual Tcl conference.
> Is this also the plan for this year?

In general yes.

> For the version number..., i don't think there have been any major
> changes to really need a 2.0, but as Tcllib
> is no longer a package of its own anyway we could just push up the
> numbers for marketing reasons. 1.11 sounds
> not as nice as a fresh and shiny 2.0. Or we could drop the style
> alltogether and adopt a year number style, as
> that would coincide with reality of the release schedule.

I would have been happy to simply increment 10 to 11 ...

> Open issues i see are some packages with missing docs or tests, more
> examples are always nice for a release.

Concrete names ? Note: docs and tests should come from the package authors.
I will not write them, except if a package in question is one I maintain.
Even then I am less inclined as it would take time away from th admin stuff
for the release.

> And of course fixing bugs and making sure stuff works fine with the
> 8.5 and possible 8.6 release candidates.

8.5 yes, 8.6 less so. If test suite errors are only about error messages
changed in 8.6 then no, nothing should be done about them, not until 8.6 is
out of alpha.

> Michael

--
	Andreas Kupries <and...@Ac...>
	Developer @ http://www.ActiveState.com
	Tel: +1 778-786-1122