[iTowns-dev] Let's release v2.0 !

[Vincent Picavet (ml)]

Hi all,

We announced last year that iTowns 2.0 would be released at the end of
2016. We are now mid-2017, and it is more than time to release !

We had to refactor and clean up a lot of things before being able to
release. With the PRs merged lately, the master branch is now stable,
the architecture is good, and we have the basic set of features we need
to be able to go out in the wild.
We agreed before on a "release soon, release often" strategy, let's do
that, we are very very close to being ready.

Our timeframe for the release is shortening though :

- if we do not release before the summer, we take a huge risk of not
being able to release before october, with the vacations of most of the
developers, and the busy period of september. This would mean almost a
year delay, which is not acceptable

- two main opensource GIS events take place this summer, FOSS4G-Europe
and FOSS4G international in Boston. This is the best time to communicate
on new products, and again, if we miss this opportunity, it would mean a
long delay before such communication opportunities arise again


I therefore propose to set the date for the release on the 5th of July,
2017.


This schedule allows to polish up things between now and the 5th, and
also prepare additional elements for the release ( website,
communication announcement & such).

If there is no strong disagreement before next tuesday with credible
alternative proposals, I propose to stick to this plan, and get ready
for its implementation :  create GH milestones, PR and issues triaging,
start work for communication and demos.

This does not prevent to work on further features, examples,
documentation and all the great things required to make itowns better.
Once the v2.0 has been released, we can enter a real "release soon,
release often" mode, improving this piece of software with short iterations.

What do you think about planning ahead the release after 2.0, fixing the
schedule sometime in september ?

Bottom line : if you have things you really want to be in v2.0, get down
to work now, and before the 5th of July. Otherwise do not worry, you
will still get opportunity to have the work released in the next version
soon.

Best regards,
Vincent