[Zope3-dev] RFC: Release cycles

[Martijn Faassen]

Stephan Richter wrote:
> On Tuesday 05 October 2004 13:52, Martijn Faassen wrote:
> 
>>I like the idea of time-based release cycles, like Gnome has been
>>keeping to for a while and Ubuntu linux is also aiming to do. Everybody
>>knows the date the next release will happen on. Knowing when the release
>>will happen will also affect many decisions concerning stability. You're
>>not going to add a destabilizing feature if you know release is going to
>>happen shortly.
>>
>>Gnome and Ubuntu use a half-yearly cycle, and that seems like a good
>>idea for me.
>  
> I do not want to commit to set dates, unless I am sure we have the developer 
> base to support such a commitment. The reason X3 3.0.0 is so late is in part 
> due to a lack of bug fix contributions. Please don't get me wrong, I would 
> love fixed dates, but I just cannot see how we can realize them with the 
> current resources yet.

I don't think it's easy to get into a time-based release pattern at all, 
and developer resources are indeed scanty. The idea of a time-based 
release is in part, though, I believe, to be able to do with the 
existing developer-base what you can by adjusting downwards the amount 
of work you'll do, if necessary. If someone knows there's only a month 
before release time, they'll likely also be less ambitious about what 
will be included.

I do think such a system works better for features than for bugfixes 
though, and it definitely works better with more developers.

I can see going to a time-based schedule is not realistic in the near 
future, but it may still be something to aim for further along the road.

An interesting discussion of time based releases, in particular in 
respect to i18n, is here:

http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-i18n/2003-August/msg00310.html

This looks like an up-to-date gnome page detailing their release strategy:

http://developer.gnome.org/dotplan/tasks.html

Again, I'm not suggesting this is adopted at all, but it's something we 
can look into at least. It's one way to ensure more frequent releases 
and seems to be having good success. I know Philipp suggested debian, 
but as much as I like it I don't consider that the epitome of timely 
releases. :)

Regards,

Martijn