[GRASS-dev] is it time to release GRASS71?

[Moritz Lennert]

On 28/02/16 00:02, Markus Metz wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 8:56 PM, Markus Neteler <neteler at osgeo.org> wrote:
>>
>> On Feb 25, 2016 5:05 PM, "Vaclav Petras" <wenzeslaus at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Feb 25, 2016 at 10:00 AM, Martin Landa <landa.martin at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> this system is used also by QGIS, MapServer, moreover it's part of
>>>> GRASS history (with one exception - 6.3). I have no strong option
>>>> about that. I would say let's follow our tradition to use odd numbers
>>>> for dev versions. Martin
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> The fact that other OSGeo projects are using it is quite convincing. But
>>> anyway, I don't see a point in simply skipping a version number.
>>
>> Well, we are using 7.1 visibly for so long as unstable/dev version.
>> So it sounds perfectly fine to call the result 7.2.
>
> Please be aware that because of many partial backports, relbr70 is 1)
> unstable (as was G6.4) and is in some regards less reliable than
> trunk.

I would say this partly depends on the notion of stable and unstable. 
Stable does not mean perfect. It just means that nothing significant is 
going to change, or ? trunk can sometimes be in a non-functional state 
while someone is introducing new functionality. Normally, stable should 
never be in a non-functional state and when it is, then this is a bug 
and will be fixed.

> Stable typically means backport only of critical bugxfixes.

I do completely agree with this, and I agree that we have not been 
careful enough and have succombed to the temptation of backporting some 
new features. That should definitely be a no-go. Once a release is out, 
only bug fixes should go in, no new features. If we want new features to 
be available to users we have to release more often, possibly by 
releasing development snapshots directly from trunk from time to time.

> Therefore, in order to stick with the odd/even numbering meaning, G7
> should have been released immediately as G71 to indicate a dev
> version. Not unstable (the code base will remain stable) but a dev
> version (testing new features). According to the odd/even numbering
> scheme, current trunk should be released as G7.3 and not G7.2 because
> it introduces new features.

I think we can possibly release either a series of dev snapshots 7.1.1, 
7.1.2, working towards a stable release 7.2. Or we soon create a 
releasebranch 7.2 and start stabilising that code, declaring a feature 
freeze ASAP and then only ironing out bugs.

Moritz