I do not know ..I am one of the few Android App developers that explores code drops and builds SDKs form dev branches to find out what new APIs/features might be coming..
But I can see from a whole ecological-system poitn that moving towards that might be a good idea.. On Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 8:58 AM, Jean-Baptiste Queru <[email protected]>wrote: > > 1) This situation is exactly what I'd expect as an engineer working on > such a large project, and I've seen it at every one of my jobs so far. > The requirements and schedules change based on changing conditions in > the ecosystem and based on technical constraints that get discovered > during development. Other than at the very end, the state of the > development tree doesn't quite match the set of requirements. > > 2) From my point of view, it's not different from what happened with > 1.5, 1.1 or 1.0 (other than the fact that this time the version number > isn't known ahead of time). In each of those previous cases there was > an ebb and flow of features being added to, modified in or removed > from the release plan, with the actual code in the tree and the > release plan only converging quite late in the cycle, and donut isn't > any different. The actual gap between the code in the tree and the > final feature set in the matching release varies from one release to > the other, which is actually expected given the amount of > unpredictability involved. > > 3) Good question. More importantly, what do we (Google) do to avoid > such situations in the future? (More precisely, as "Mr Android > Open-Source Project", what do *I* do?). > > Reading down the thread, it was suggested to only branch when the > feature set is entirely known. While I'm in favor of late branching, > the nature of the Android ecosystem so far has been that multiple > releases routinely get worked on in parallel, which requires some > pretty early branching. At the same time, the feature set is known > very late, because some features get cut off late in the game > (typically because there's no time to complete them, because they > don't work as well as expected or because they're plagued with to many > bugs to fix in time). The way to only make code drops that match a > release feature set reasonably well is to only make code drops very > late in the process (in the last few weeks of multi-month development > cycles), which for all practical purposes boils down to making one > code drop when the release is completed - that would isolate the > Android Open-Source Project from the issue of managing expectations of > non-engineer people while continuing to not involve anyone else from > Google (and especially PR). > > JBQ > > On Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 12:26 AM, Tom Gibara<[email protected]> wrote: > > Sorry if this sounds a bit grumpy (I've been up since 3am) but: > > 1) How is this different from what one might sensibly expect as a > > developer? I appreciate that not everyone is, but... > > 2) Importantly, how is this different from the process that occurred > with > > cupcake? Most people labouring under these confusions have probably > already > > seen cupcake come and go and... > > 3) Why are the Google engineers who spend their valuable time > explaining > > these things being harangued about this? > > Unfortunately I don't have any suggestions about how to tackle this wave > of > > misinformation that threatens to sweep over every Android release, as it > > seems to be baked into the 'social web'. > > Tom. > > > > 2009/7/27 Al Sutton <[email protected]> > >> > >> I've been having some twitter exchanges with JBQ and reading around the > >> various articles and I think I understand what donut is so I'm throwing > it > >> out to the list so we can clear anything up. > >> > >> There is not one Donut but two. (Mmmmm... Donuts) > >> > >> One is the codename for the next release (i.e. donut release), One is > the > >> branch in the git repo (i.e. donut tree). The feature set and version > number > >> for the donut release has not been fixed. The features in the donut tree > and > >> candidates for the donut release but are not guaranteed to be part of > the > >> donut release. > >> > >> As for a donut release version number, JBQ seems to think that "System > V" > >> is unlikely but anything is possible :). > >> > >> So; If you're using one of the donut sdks from the open source build you > >> are using the donut tree and so it has candidate features, you are not > using > >> the donut release (because the shape and sprinkles for donut release > have > >> not been finalise), so some features may not make the cut. > >> > >> The other thing to remember is that OEMs and carriers get their hand in > so > >> even if a feature in donut tree does make it into donut release the OEM > or > >> carrier may remove it before consumers get a chance to take a bite. > >> > >> Does anyone think this isn't right? > >> > >> Al. > >> > >> P.S. As I understand things Romains' comment about "donut is not 2.0" > >> should be read as "At the point in time when the comment was made donut > tree > >> does not contain just contain features for a donut release, and 2.0 has > not > >> been decided upon as the version number for the donut release. In the > future > >> the donut release may be given the 2.0 version number, but that has not > been > >> decided upon so *at this point in time* donut is not 2.0". > >> -- > >> > >> * Written an Android App? - List it at http://andappstore.com/ * > >> > >> ====== > >> Funky Android Limited is registered in England & Wales with the > >> company number 6741909. The registered head office is Kemp House, > >> 152-160 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, UK. > >> > >> The views expressed in this email are those of the author and not > >> necessarily those of Funky Android Limited, it's associates, or it's > >> subsidiaries. > >> > >> > >> > >> > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > Jean-Baptiste M. "JBQ" Queru > Software Engineer, Android Open-Source Project, Google. > > Questions sent directly to me that have no reason for being private > will likely get ignored or forwarded to a public forum with no further > warning. > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
