[Qgis-psc] Release schedule

[Matthias Kuhn 🌍]

Hi Jürgen

On 06/28/2017 04:28 PM, Jürgen E. Fischer wrote:
> Hi Matthias,
> 
>  
> So we are going back to the earlier way of doing schedules - just a release
> every four months.  That was the earlier plan.  I like it because it doesn't
> require discussions and/or meta discussions.
I think that this approach worked nicely for the last 2 years, I'm
totally in favor of continuing with this.
Only .0 releases like 3.0 should receive special treatment :)

> 
> So that's what how schedule had looked like if we stopped discussing after
> setting the data for 3.0:
> 
> ===== ======= ========= ========== ==== =====
> Event Latest  Long-Term Date       Week Weeks
>               (repos)              #
> ===== ======= ========= ========== ==== =====
> PR    2.18.4  2.14.12   24.02.2017 8    4
> PR    2.18.5  2.14.13   24.03.2017 12   2
> EPR   2.18.6            07.04.2017 14   2
> PR    2.18.7  2.14.14   21.04.2017 16   4
> LTR   2.18.8  2.14.15   19.05.2017 20   4
> EPR   2.18.9            26.05.2017 21   3
> PR    2.18.10 2.14.16   23.06.2017 26   4
> PR    2.18.11 2.14.17   21.07.2017 29   4
> PR    2.18.12 2.14.18   18.08.2017 33   6
> FF    (2.99)            18.08.2017 33   6
> LR    3.0.0   2.18.12   29.09.2017 39   4
> PR    3.0.1   2.18.13   27.10.2017 43   4
> PR    3.0.2   2.18.14   24.11.2017 47   3
> PR    3.0.3   2.18.15   15.12.2017 50   6
> FF    (3.1)             15.12.2017 50   6
> LR    3.2.0   2.18.16   26.01.2018 4    4
> PR    3.2.1   2.18.17   23.02.2018 8    4
> PR    3.2.2   2.18.18   23.03.2018 12   4
> PR    3.2.3   2.18.19   20.04.2018 16   4
> FF    (3.3)             20.04.2018 16   6
> LTR   3.4.0   2.18.20   01.06.2018 20   4
> PR    3.4.1   2.18.21   29.06.2018 26   4
> PR    3.4.2   2.18.22   27.07.2018 30   4
> PR    3.4.3   2.18.23   24.08.2018 38   5
> FF    (3.5)             24.08.2018 38   5
> LR    3.6.0   3.4.4     28.09.2018 43   4
> PR    3.6.1   3.4.5     02.11.2018 48   2
> PR    3.6.2   3.4.6     14.12.2018 50   6
> PR    3.6.3   3.4.7     25.01.2019 4
> ===== ======= ========= ========== ==== =====
> 
> Changes to the current schedule:
> Instead of 3.0.4 we release 3.2 as a regular release.
> The release of 3.0.3 also marks the feature freeze for 3.1.
> 3.4 is now the LTR, but on 1.6 instead of 18.5 and feature freeze is
> on 20.4
Much better!

> 
> 378 days between the LTRs 2.18.8 and 3.4.
I assume this is the difference between 1.6.2018 (initial release 3.4.0)
and 19.5.2017 (promotion of 2.18.8 to LTR).

Confusing for me is, that after the 1.6.2018 there are still patches
planned for 2.18 (2.18.20, 2.18.21, ...) but 2.18 is no longer
considered LTR. Is it correct that we "downgrade" releases from LTR but
still continue to ship patches?

For a user I guess the interesting thing is for how long I get patches
for a version and 2.18 will effectively receive updates until May 2018
even if it's already 3.2 which becomes LTR (3.2.4 would replace 2.18 in
the LTR repository on 1.6.2018, 378 days after its "promotion" to LTR).

So IMO, there should nothing be stopping us from already shipping 3.2 as
LTR and have a chance to get corporate users to start using the 3.x
series 4 months earlier.


Something else to consider would be a bit of extra time in feature
freeze for 3.0 to have time to thoroughly check all the intrusive
changes that have landed in this release (I think there was a discussion
about this at some point).
It would be nice to get a feedback from other active developers outside
the PSC for this question (Nathan, Martin, Nyall, ...)

I hope this makes sense and doesn't complicate things too much :)
Matthias