Hi guys, This email is long overdue, but it's better late than never.
At this time, I'd like to propose a schedule toward our releasing AbiWord version 1.0 ================================ There are currently about 500 bugs in an Open, Submit, or POSTPONED state in Bugzilla, and this number is likely to rise in the near future. There are also tons of bugs that need to be verified, opened, closed, tested, and many more need triage. I'm calling for help here from developers and users alike to help us out here. If you have 5 or 10 free minutes, this could make all the difference to us. Not all bugs in bugzilla will be marked as 1.0 release critical - many don't deserve to be, many others would require us to rewrite AbiWord's layout engine (for example), and others are just plain goofy. Still others are requests for enhancement and probably should be postponed to post 1.0. Of the 500 current bugs, my preliminary (educated) guess is that about 250 of these should be fixed or otherwise closed before 1.0 and the other 250 should be properly targetted toward post 1.0 releases ================================ Required platforms for 1.0: -------------------------------- *Win32, Win32 Bidi *Linux GTK+, GTK+ Bidi (ia32 and ppc archs) *Linux Gnome, Gnome Bidi (ia32 and ppc archs) "Would be nice" platforms for 1.0: -------------------------------- *Solaris Sparc GTK+ Mono-di **BSD ia32 GTK+ and Gnome, mono-di and bidi *QNX ia32 Mono-di (pending free-time from thomasf, else see BeOs notes) "Impossible" platforms for 1.0: -------------------------------- *MacOS *BeOS ia32 (though if someone steps up to do the required work, we could release a "developer's snapshot" of BeOs AbiWord) ================================ Preliminary schedule: Feature freeze: TODAY. There will be no more features checked into the tree, unless they are considered ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY and are currently filed in Bugzilla. These would be anything considered as a RELEASE BLOCKER and I don't think that there will be many (if any) of these commits needed. If you're hankering for a new feature or functionality, feel free to check it into AbiWord-Plugins Soft String freeze: This Friday, the Dec 21st. I say "soft" here because some bugzilla bugs may require the addition of or changing of strings, and this is both unavoidable and worthwhile. Documentation freeze: English language documentation should be done by January 4, 2002 to allow time for adequate translations. Hard String freeze: January 7, 2002. Bugzilla bugs that require new strings or an alteration of existing string will have to be done by this date or will have to wait until 1.0.1. NO EXCEPTIONS. AbiWord 0.99.1 aka 1.0 Alpha 1: January 8, 2002. ~50% of 1.0 release critical bugs should be fixed by this date. Translation freeze (both strings and documentation): January 18. We will no longer accept new translations, documentation updates, or anything of the sort after this date. NO EXCEPTIONS. AbiWord 0.99.2 aka 1.0 Beta 1: January 19, 2002. ~66% of 1.0 release critical bugs should be fixed by this date. AbiWord 0.99.3 aka 1.0 Beta 2: January 23, 2002. ~75% of 1.0 release critical bugs should be fixed by this date. AbiWord 0.99.4 aka 1.0 Pre 1 : January 27, 2002. ~85% of 1.0 release critical bugs should be fixed by this date. AbiWord 1.0 final: January 31, 2002. Ideally, between 90% and 100% of 1.0 targetted bugs would be here. Ideally NO KNOWN CRASHERS ================================ Requirements: * FEW/NO KNOWN CRASHERS * Adequate working translations * As many dictionaries as humanly possible * Adequate documentation: - David's docs, integrated with our help system, translated - Installion documents for all required platforms and subplatforms (rpm, tgz, deb, ...) - HOWTO/FAQs, especially for the more annoying and prominant bugs (Bidi vs Monodi, unix font handling/setup, ttf, ...) ================================ I'm looking for more feedback from everyone here. The release schedule is set in mud, not stone right now, so a bit of movement is possible, but not a whole lot. Getting 1.0 out the door will be a big process, but it's going to kick some major ass. I want to thank everyone who has (and will) put in their valuable time toward making our 1.0 release the greatest ever! Dom
