I like the schedule idea. It provides a goal, and a measure of how accurately it is being achieved. It's less important that it be correct, than to just have it as an understood tentative guideline. By the way, I love the FreeBSD development model. Have you seen this?:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeBSD#Timeline FreeBSD is one of the most ubiquitous pieces of software on the planet, in part because it's more predictable. Every operating system on the planet that I can think of off the top of my head uses at least some code from FreeBSD, including the biggies like linux, MacOSX, and windows. I think part of the reason it's so well-accepted is because it's dependable, if not as cutting edge as linux. The release schedule seems to add some rigorousness (and reliability, etc) to the development model, even though the development model itself is more rigorous than most open source projects. The mediawiki development model is mostly continuous integration - which works well for anything that doesn't take very long to produce (so it can be integrated before it becomes outdated). CI is fast paced, and can produce a LOT of reasonably well-working code quickly, but it has more trouble when dealing with bigger code changes that require more development time and brain power. Still, mediawiki runs on a schedule similar to what Jeroen Dedauw is proposing, and I think that helps a lot with increasing the quality of code produced using the continuous integration development model. With fewer developers, the SMW project is less constrained by time in the continuous integration model. So, I think it will see even more improvement than the mediawiki project did by using a release and obsolescence schedule. Great idea! Yaron Koren-2 wrote: > > Hi, > > No need to edit the wiki - I'm convinced. :) > > Being able to have a predictable future release schedule would be a big > step > forward for Semantic MediaWiki - it's something that even MediaWiki itself > hasn't always been able to do - so it would be great if it works out. > > -Yaron > > On Sun, Aug 21, 2011 at 8:21 PM, Jeroen De Dauw > <jeroended...@gmail.com>wrote: > >> Hey, >> >> >> > since knowing exactly when, say, SMW 1.8 will come out really is a >> guess >> >> It is right now yes. This is not that good of a situation though. Having >> dates on the roadmap is definitely a good thing, as developers can better >> work towards these releases and people can anticipate releases. It's a >> bit >> silly to do if there are no features for such a release anyone wants to >> commit to, but dropping compat w/ certain MW versions in itself justifies >> a >> new release IMO. So if you can plan compat dropping, you can plan >> releases >> for it. >> >> >> > Maybe there should just be two separate schedules? >> >> I don't think there is a particular need for this, but it's a wiki, so >> feel >> free to edit as you see fit :) >> >> >> Cheers >> >> -- >> Jeroen De Dauw >> http://www.bn2vs.com >> Don't panic. Don't be evil. >> -- >> > > > > -- > WikiWorks · MediaWiki Consulting · http://wikiworks.com > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > uberSVN's rich system and user administration capabilities and model > configuration take the hassle out of deploying and managing Subversion and > the tools developers use with it. Learn more about uberSVN and get a free > download at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/wandisco-dev2dev > > _______________________________________________ > Semediawiki-devel mailing list > Semediawiki-devel@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/semediawiki-devel > > -- View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/SMW-roadmap-tp32306943p32322443.html Sent from the Semantic Mediawiki - Development mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ EMC VNX: the world's simplest storage, starting under $10K The only unified storage solution that offers unified management Up to 160% more powerful than alternatives and 25% more efficient. Guaranteed. http://p.sf.net/sfu/emc-vnx-dev2dev _______________________________________________ Semediawiki-devel mailing list Semediawiki-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/semediawiki-devel
