[Qgis-developer] Release plan updates for 1.8

[Tim Sutton]

Greetings all

I just wanted to post a quick summary of the plans for the release for
1.8 and a general change in approach for the future. First let me
explain the general approach change:

* We are going to abandon the approach of maintaining multiple
branches (1 or two release branches plus master)
* Instead release will be directly off master
* The release branches in future will be nominal and receive minimal
maintenance, only being used as a marker for the release and on
occassions where we need to apply a critical fix soon after the
release is made
* Feature freeze and string freeze will take place directly on master
* At the point of release a branch will be made and normal activity
can continue on master

And for 1.8:

* We are going to delete the existing 1.8 branch and release based on
what is currently on trunk. This way we can be sure that all the 'good
stuff' gets into the next release.
* There will be a couple of very minor api breakages in the release
will only affect those who are using the map printing (composer) API.
I realise that this is not the norm for a point release (and it will
not be the norm for our point releases), but we want to be pragmatic
about this rather than dogmatic. If you need any assistance in
adapting your plugin to the new api we will be happy to help (and we
suggest to place a small wrapper around the changed calls so that you
plugin works both with 1.7 and 1.8).
* On this Tuesday (17 April) 12 pm GMT, feature freeze will take
effect on master - after that no more features should be added to
master until the freeze is lifted.
* There will be a string freeze effective from 24 April, although
translators are encouraged to start translating sooner)
* There will be a three week period for testing - following that, if
there are no blocking tickets remaining, we will branch 1.8 and put
out a call for packages on 8 May 2012
* The final release announcements will follow approximately one week
following that

I know many out there prefer a 'stabilised branch' approach as we have
been following with the 1.7 series but after a lot of soul searching
and based on our available time and our priorities we have decided
that it is not viable for us to continue in this manner and we would
like a 'one branch' approach to our project for the forseeable future.
Of course new developements should continue to take place in your own
branch or fork of QGIS - the master should always represent 'the best
that we have'.

Please note again: THE CURRENT 1.8 BRANCH WILL BE DELETE ON TUESDAY

Regards


Tim
-- 
Tim Sutton - QGIS Project Steering Committee Member (Release  Manager)
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