Re: [Zope3-dev] Re: [Zope-dev] Release schedule for Zope 2.11/3.4?

2006-09-12 Thread Dieter Maurer
Martijn Faassen wrote at 2006-9-12 14:44 +0200:
> ...
>> The current CHANGES.txt from the trunk just lists one new feature (added
>> by myself). That's does not deserve a major release.
>
>It's the nature of time-based releases, though. If nobody does anything 
>in 6 months, does that mean we won't have a release at all?

Of course! Why in hell should you make a release with nothing relevant
in it?

Both the release process are well as the upgrade process entail
a considerable amount of work. You do it only if it is worth the effort.



-- 
Dieter
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[Zope3-dev] Re: [Zope-dev] Release schedule for Zope 2.11/3.4?

2006-09-12 Thread Martin Aspeli

Benji York wrote:

Personally I think we should just release the trunk every six months 
(with a list of known bugs) and that be it.  (I'm speaking of Zope 3 
here, I don't know enough about the dynamics of the Zope 2 ecosystem to 
comment there.)


What good could that possibly do?

For the people who are not spending their days reading checkin messages, 
something that is called a final release is a promise that the features 
they get have been tested and are considered stable, that they can rely 
on a certain degree of backwards compatibility, and that they're going 
to get burned.


Releases are externally-facing things. They benefit people other than 
the core contributors the most (the core contributors mostly get the 
gratification of having released something, and then probably go on 
playing with trunk). The quality those people receive must be the most 
important factor by which a release is judged.


.0 releases of Zope (2) have had a somewhat negative image before (to 
the point where people were afraid to let Plone depend on a Zope release 
that didn't have a .1 or .2 release out already), which I think is 
getting better. Undoing that would be to the detriment of how people 
perceive the quality of our software.


By the same token, we could just never have releases and expect everyone 
to live off svn trunk. The idea of a release *cycle* is surely that it's 
cyclical: at the beginning, we worry about features and innovation, at 
the end we worry about stability and polish. If the timelines are worked 
out correctly, then time-based releases help us manage scope and keep 
moving at a pace that doesn't mean we have enormous mountains of 
features that take an infinite amount of time to stabilise and get ready.


That's a good thing, but ignoring the end-result quality argument by 
being slaves to the Great Roadmap that was set out six months ago isn't. 
It's very waterfall. :)


Martin (pardon any hyperbole)

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Re: [Zope3-dev] Re: [Zope-dev] Release schedule for Zope 2.11/3.4?

2006-09-12 Thread Benji York

Andreas Jung wrote:

I am thinking since one hour about how to reply to Benji's proposal. It's
not much acceptable. Major release have to be planned to a certain degree 
and must be tested (as good as we can) - means we must have alpha and beta

releases.


I wasn't proposing we do away with alphas or betas.  More concretely: I 
was simply wondering aloud about doing "true" time-based releases.  On a 
certain date we cut the first alpha, on a certain date we cut the first 
beta, etc..  Of course, there must be /some/ flexibility to deal with 
ultra-critical bugs, but we already do something similar with how we 
treat release candidates.


I believe that the trunk is good enough to produce a release at (almost) 
any given time.  If bugs are known and unfixed when we do a release, we 
document them (they likely already exist in the previous released 
version, so we're not doing any harm there).


Again, this is all from my Zope 3 perspective, I'm not immersed in the 
Zope 2 world, so these ideas may not be applicable there.

--
Benji York
Senior Software Engineer
Zope Corporation
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Re: [Zope3-dev] Re: [Zope-dev] Release schedule for Zope 2.11/3.4?

2006-09-12 Thread Andreas Jung



--On 12. September 2006 16:55:31 +0200 Martijn Faassen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
wrote:





Personally I think we should just release the trunk every six months
(with a list of known bugs) and that be it.  (I'm speaking of Zope 3
here, I don't know enough about the dynamics of the Zope 2 ecosystem to
comment there.)


I think that this is an edge case of time-based releasing: the absolute
minimal work we need to do to make a time-based release is to release the
trunk. Hopefully we'll be doing more than the minimal amount of work, and
we'll actually fix some bugs before we release the trunk. A release can
be a good opportunity to fix lingering bugs, after all.


I am thinking since one hour about how to reply to Benji's proposal. It's
not much acceptable. Major release have to be planned to a certain degree 
and must be tested (as good as we can) - means we must have alpha and beta
releases. Everything else does not make sense to me. Zope 2 is not a 
kindergarten project and we use it for professional projects and we as a 
community should act (somewhat) professional. You can of course make daily 
snapshots available but most developers are using SVN checkouts and 
professional users don't want depend on snapshots - they expect official 
releases.



Andreas

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Re: [Zope3-dev] Re: [Zope-dev] Release schedule for Zope 2.11/3.4?

2006-09-12 Thread Martijn Faassen

Benji York wrote:

Martijn Faassen wrote:

[snip]

What do you think about a 9 month release cycle?


If we can't manage a 6 month cycle, 9 months is the longest release 
cycle I think is acceptable.


Agreed. I'd like to avoid longer than 9 months too.

Personally I think we should just release the trunk every six months 
(with a list of known bugs) and that be it.  (I'm speaking of Zope 3 
here, I don't know enough about the dynamics of the Zope 2 ecosystem to 
comment there.)


I think that this is an edge case of time-based releasing: the absolute 
minimal work we need to do to make a time-based release is to release 
the trunk. Hopefully we'll be doing more than the minimal amount of 
work, and we'll actually fix some bugs before we release the trunk. A 
release can be a good opportunity to fix lingering bugs, after all.


Of course with eggification of Zope 3, 'releasing the trunk' is going to 
 be less meaningful in the future...


Regards,

Martijn

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Re: [Zope3-dev] Re: [Zope-dev] Release schedule for Zope 2.11/3.4?

2006-09-12 Thread Benji York

Martijn Faassen wrote:

Andreas Jung wrote:



Another point with this whole half-yr release cycle: we're going to confuse
more and more professional users about which Zope version to use for what.
I've heard from my major customer but also from other ppl. IN December 
we would have *three* maintained versions 2.9, 2.10 and 2.11. We definitely

can't deprecate Zope 2.9 in December because this version is required
by Plone 2.5. Plone 2.5 was just released and ppl just start to migrate
from Plone 2.1 to Plone 2.5. We have the burden  maintain Zope 2.9 for the
mid-future. So my personal impression right now is: we're flooding the 
community with new major releases and the community does not adapt those
releases. My theory: a major part of the ppl running Zope are running 
Plone.

on top of Zope...so with have to deal with this fact somehow.



That is a good argument for lengthening the release cycle. (as opposed 
to say, people will fix more bugs if the release cycle is longer)


What do you think about a 9 month release cycle?


If we can't manage a 6 month cycle, 9 months is the longest release 
cycle I think is acceptable.


Personally I think we should just release the trunk every six months 
(with a list of known bugs) and that be it.  (I'm speaking of Zope 3 
here, I don't know enough about the dynamics of the Zope 2 ecosystem to 
comment there.)

--
Benji York
Senior Software Engineer
Zope Corporation
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[Zope3-dev] Re: [Zope-dev] Release schedule for Zope 2.11/3.4?

2006-09-12 Thread Martijn Faassen

Andreas Jung wrote:
--On 12. September 2006 13:06:05 +0200 Martijn Faassen 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:



Andreas Jung wrote:

--On 12. September 2006 12:28:10 +0200 Martijn Faassen
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

[snip]
Anyway, if the main thing holding up *this* release is bugfixes, 
doing a

new release in 3 months shouldn't be a problem, as after all, we've
already fixed those bugs this time around. :)


3 month for a new release cycle is just too short. We should not follow
the IMO broken concept of "release early, release often" but to follow
"release regular, release solid". At least me I refuse to release
something just  for the sake of making a release at a certain date.


The current CHANGES.txt from the trunk just lists one new feature (added
by myself). That's does not deserve a major release.


It's the nature of time-based releases, though. If nobody does anything 
in 6 months, does that mean we won't have a release at all?


Zope 2 also includes Zope 3, so that might help feature-wise.


The goal is not release early, release often, but to get back to our
regular release schedule. After all, we already had 3 months to add code
to Zope 2 and Zope 3 trunk that will be included in the next release, as
I believe they branched at the time.


Not much happened during the three month or I did I miss something?


So imagine we had done the release in june as we planned and everything 
else would be the same. Would that mean we would've canceled the next 
release, as we'd only have 1 new feature?



Could you explain the reasons for the coming 3 months being too short in
this particular case? What features are we adding to Zope 2 or Zope 3
that make it too short and thus would result in a not-solid-enough
release?


We just don't have nothing new right now.


That could then not be affecting the solidity of the release, just how 
interesting the release is. :)



Another point with this whole half-yr release cycle: we're going to confuse
more and more professional users about which Zope version to use for what.
I've heard from my major customer but also from other ppl. IN December 
we would have *three* maintained versions 2.9, 2.10 and 2.11. We definitely

can't deprecate Zope 2.9 in December because this version is required
by Plone 2.5. Plone 2.5 was just released and ppl just start to migrate
from Plone 2.1 to Plone 2.5. We have the burden  maintain Zope 2.9 for the
mid-future. So my personal impression right now is: we're flooding the 
community with new major releases and the community does not adapt those
releases. My theory: a major part of the ppl running Zope are running 
Plone.

on top of Zope...so with have to deal with this fact somehow.


That is a good argument for lengthening the release cycle. (as opposed 
to say, people will fix more bugs if the release cycle is longer)


What do you think about a 9 month release cycle?

Regards,

Martijn
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[Zope3-dev] Re: [Zope-dev] Release schedule for Zope 2.11/3.4?

2006-09-12 Thread Andreas Jung



--On 12. September 2006 13:06:05 +0200 Martijn Faassen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
wrote:



Andreas Jung wrote:

--On 12. September 2006 12:28:10 +0200 Martijn Faassen
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

[snip]

Anyway, if the main thing holding up *this* release is bugfixes, doing a
new release in 3 months shouldn't be a problem, as after all, we've
already fixed those bugs this time around. :)


3 month for a new release cycle is just too short. We should not follow
the IMO broken concept of "release early, release often" but to follow
"release regular, release solid". At least me I refuse to release
something just  for the sake of making a release at a certain date.


The current CHANGES.txt from the trunk just lists one new feature (added
by myself). That's does not deserve a major release.



The goal is not release early, release often, but to get back to our
regular release schedule. After all, we already had 3 months to add code
to Zope 2 and Zope 3 trunk that will be included in the next release, as
I believe they branched at the time.


Not much happened during the three month or I did I miss something?


Could you explain the reasons for the coming 3 months being too short in
this particular case? What features are we adding to Zope 2 or Zope 3
that make it too short and thus would result in a not-solid-enough
release?


We just don't have nothing new right now.

Another point with this whole half-yr release cycle: we're going to confuse
more and more professional users about which Zope version to use for what.
I've heard from my major customer but also from other ppl. IN December we 
would have *three* maintained versions 2.9, 2.10 and 2.11. We definitely

can't deprecate Zope 2.9 in December because this version is required
by Plone 2.5. Plone 2.5 was just released and ppl just start to migrate
from Plone 2.1 to Plone 2.5. We have the burden  maintain Zope 2.9 for the
mid-future. So my personal impression right now is: we're flooding the 
community with new major releases and the community does not adapt those
releases. My theory: a major part of the ppl running Zope are running 
Plone.

on top of Zope...so with have to deal with this fact somehow.

Andreas

I think the egg-story is one candidate for being too big, and a possible
reason to shift the release schedule. Then again, we do not need the egg
story to land in the upcoming release anyway.

Regards,

Martijn




--
ZOPYX Ltd. & Co. KG - Charlottenstr. 37/1 - 72070 Tübingen - Germany
Web: www.zopyx.com - Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Phone +49 - 7071 - 793376
E-Publishing, Python, Zope & Plone development, Consulting


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[Zope3-dev] Re: [Zope-dev] Release schedule for Zope 2.11/3.4?

2006-09-12 Thread Martijn Faassen

Andreas Jung wrote:
--On 12. September 2006 12:28:10 +0200 Martijn Faassen 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

[snip]

Anyway, if the main thing holding up *this* release is bugfixes, doing a
new release in 3 months shouldn't be a problem, as after all, we've
already fixed those bugs this time around. :)


3 month for a new release cycle is just too short. We should not follow the
IMO broken concept of "release early, release often" but to follow "release
regular, release solid". At least me I refuse to release something just 
for the sake of making a release at a certain date.


The goal is not release early, release often, but to get back to our 
regular release schedule. After all, we already had 3 months to add code 
to Zope 2 and Zope 3 trunk that will be included in the next release, as 
I believe they branched at the time.


Could you explain the reasons for the coming 3 months being too short in 
this particular case? What features are we adding to Zope 2 or Zope 3 
that make it too short and thus would result in a not-solid-enough release?


I think the egg-story is one candidate for being too big, and a possible 
reason to shift the release schedule. Then again, we do not need the egg 
story to land in the upcoming release anyway.


Regards,

Martijn

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[Zope3-dev] Re: [Zope-dev] Release schedule for Zope 2.11/3.4?

2006-09-12 Thread Andreas Jung



--On 12. September 2006 12:28:10 +0200 Martijn Faassen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
wrote:



Andreas Jung wrote:

since we are three month late with the current releas, it would make
sense to reschedule Zope 2.11/3.4 for July (or was it June) next yr?!


Is the reasoning here that since a release cycle has taken 9 months, so
should the next? I'm not convinced expanding the release cycle is going
to make us be on time more.


Not really, just a thought in order to stick with the June/December
cycle...but not really an important argument.




If we want to stick with the half-yr cycles, we need to schedule the
next release for around March/April next yr. Thoughts?


That's one option. The other option is to stick with the plan and catch
up, as Christian Theune proposed. It would mean getting very unambitious,
but perhaps that isn't a bad idea. The idea of a release is to have a
reasonably stable, known-good version of the trunk, and it doesn't matter
that much how much the trunk changes.

Anyway, if the main thing holding up *this* release is bugfixes, doing a
new release in 3 months shouldn't be a problem, as after all, we've
already fixed those bugs this time around. :)


3 month for a new release cycle is just too short. We should not follow the
IMO broken concept of "release early, release often" but to follow "release
regular, release solid". At least me I refuse to release something just for 
the sake of making a release at a certain date.


Andreas



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[Zope3-dev] Re: [Zope-dev] Release schedule for Zope 2.11/3.4?

2006-09-12 Thread Martijn Faassen

Andreas Jung wrote:

since we are three month late with the current releas, it would make
sense to reschedule Zope 2.11/3.4 for July (or was it June) next yr?!


Is the reasoning here that since a release cycle has taken 9 months, so
should the next? I'm not convinced expanding the release cycle is going
to make us be on time more.


If we want to stick with the half-yr cycles, we need to schedule the
next release for around March/April next yr. Thoughts?


That's one option. The other option is to stick with the plan and catch 
up, as Christian Theune proposed. It would mean getting very 
unambitious, but perhaps that isn't a bad idea. The idea of a release is 
to have a reasonably stable, known-good version of the trunk, and it 
doesn't matter that much how much the trunk changes.


Anyway, if the main thing holding up *this* release is bugfixes, doing a 
new release in 3 months shouldn't be a problem, as after all, we've 
already fixed those bugs this time around. :)


Regards,

Martijn

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