[Squeakfoundation]Proposed 3.5 release plan

Doug Way dway at riskmetrics.com
Wed Mar 12 01:20:33 CET 2003


On Mon, 10 Mar 2003 19:34:07 -0500, Doug Way wrote:
>
> ...
> So, let's assume we go ahead with the current plan for 3.5 (only the 
> two
> bugfixes unless another major bug comes up, release on April 4th).  We 
> can
> discuss it a bit more, but I'd like to announce this on squeak-dev 
> sometime
> tomorrow as planned.
>
> Then, I could harvest the two bugfixes and put them in the 3.5alpha 
> update
> stream.  Then, soon after that (maybe a few days), we might as well 
> move 3.5
> straight to beta.  At that point, we could offer the usual choice in 
> the
> update stream for whether people want to move to 3.5beta or join the 
> new
> 3.6alpha update stream.
>
> With 3.6alpha open, even while 3.5beta is still around, we could start
> harvesting the fixes on sqfixes into 3.6alpha and see some of the 
> faster
> turnaround and "visibility" that we've been hoping to achieve.

There doesn't seem to be violent disagreement to this basic proposed 
plan so far :-), but I should probably flesh it out a bit more before 
announcing it on squeak-dev.

(In some ways this seems like a bit of overkill in terms of process, 
for a two-fix release.  New VMs probably do not need to be built in 
this case, and perhaps we don't need to bother with the usual press 
releases. (?)  You could make a good argument that this could be more 
of a patch release, possibly named 3.4.1.  But then even such a patch 
release would still need a testing period to make sure the fixes 
actually worked and didn't cause further problems.  So I guess I don't 
have a big problem with calling it 3.5.)

Anyway, here's the fleshed out proposed plan.  Let me know if the dates 
and everything else sound reasonable.  If it is, I'll announce it 
tomorrow night on squeak-dev.

-----------------------

The 3.5 release will be a short release for the purpose of fixing a 
couple of serious bugs that have cropped up, and (to a lesser extent) 
to serve as a simple first-time release for the Guides, from beginning 
to end.

The proposed release date is April 4th.  This will give us a chance to 
get a release out quickly with these important fixes, but it will also 
give us a little bit of time to plan the post-3.5 release.

The two fixes are MetaClassBuilderFix from Andreas Raab which fixes the 
class builder problem, and reverting a method which caused problems for 
anyone saving a project containing a .gif or .jpg (which is quite 
common).

There won't be any other fixes accepted for this quick release, unless 
something comes up of similar severity to the project-saving bug.  
(Minimum requirements would be: several people independently mention it 
as a problem, the bug didn't exist in 3.2, and then the guides have to 
agree that it's worth including.)  The reason we are being strict about 
this is because of the very short release cycle.

However, this doesn't mean that the harvesting process started up at 
http://swiki.gsug.org:8080/SQFIXES/ will come to a standstill.  Within 
a week, a 3.6alpha update stream will open up, and we can start moving 
fixes into it quickly.  (We haven't officially decided that the next 
release will be called 3.6, but for now I'll use that name.  3.6 will 
have a longer release cycle.)

Craig Latta suggested a "First Fridays" scheme for the final release 
date, which we will try here.  (Releasing on the first Friday of the 
month.)  That way we won't sometimes be releasing on a weekend, for 
example, which can be a problem for some people.

Dates:

Sometime tomorrow or so - Add the two fixes to the 3.5alpha update 
stream.

Monday, March 17 - Move 3.5 to beta, and create a 3.6alpha update 
stream, allowing the usual choice when updating.

Friday, March 28 - Create a gamma candidate image.  Also, have a plan 
for the 3.6 release ready by this date.  The plan should include a 
proposed list of major features, and a release date.

Wednesday, April 2 - If the gamma image is okay, move image to final. 
Otherwise, create gammaTwo and delay one week. (Not likely with this 
particular release, but this will be the general rule.)

Friday, April 4 - Release!  Bundles are uploaded to the ftp site, and 
squeak.org is updated.



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