Forum OpenACS Development: 5.0 Release Plan

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1: 5.0 Release Plan
Posted by Lars Pind on 09/22/03 11:43 AM
We're getting closer, and have thought some more. Here's what we suggest:
  • Hard feature freeze date is Monday, September 29. Nothing except bug fixes can go in after this date. Before this date, you can only commit things if you will commit to and have the time to fix any problems in your code on short notice in the weeks following the feature freeze date.

  • After this date, at least two core developers (Don, Lars?) must review all commits. We will go through the commit logs and review things that have already been committed, rather than being a bottle-neck that must review before the commit.

  • After this date, top priority is testing and bug fixing. We have a lot of little broken things due to noquote and i18n, there are still a number of things that aren't i18n'd, and there are message keys that have been cut poorly. We need to find and resolve all these issues.

  • I'm expecting testing and bug fixing to last around 3 weeks through Monday, October 20. It all depends on how efficient we all are in testing and fixing.

  • You can contribute by testing and fixing bugs. In order of priority, here are the helpful ways in which you can contribute:

    1. Fix a bug and commit to cvs
    2. Apply a patch currently in the bug-tracker to cvs
    3. Submit a patch to the bug-tracker
    4. Write a test case, whether it demonstrates something that works or something that breaks, and commit it to cvs. This will cause it to get picked up by our automated test servers the following night.
    5. Write a test case and submit it as a patch in the bug-tracker
    6. Find a bug and submit it to the bug-tracker (write (1) the steps you took, (2) what you expected to happen, and (3) what actually happened). Preferably, bugs should be tested against the automated test servers at http://dotlrn.collaboraid.net/test/, and any links in the bug report should be on those servers.
    7. Verify whether an open or resolved bug in the bug-tracker is still a problem, or has been fixed, and resolve/close/reopen as appropriate.

  • We will have several testing- and bug-fixing-bashes along the way. The first will be on Thursday September 25 (can we get a show of hands who will be able to show up?). OCT members will be on IRC to help coordinate. These sessions will concentrate on contributing per the prioritized list above.
We don't currently have a good idea about how bad things are, so we're looking forward to getting a much better sense of that during the first bug-bash.

Feedback on the plans?

/Lars

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2: Re: 5.0 Release Plan (response to 1)
Posted by Malte Sussdorff on 09/22/03 01:01 PM
Does this hold true for contrib directory as well ?
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3: Re: 5.0 Release Plan (response to 1)
Posted by Lars Pind on 09/22/03 01:31 PM
Re contrib: No.

One very important point which I forgot to mention is when we branch.

I see the need to branch as soon as possible, because otherwise we're telling people to hold off on committing useful things.

On the other hand, I think the tree is currently too filled with small bugs for us to branch, because that would mean that trivial bugs were likely to get chased and fixed multiple times, making merge annoying and hard.

So I'm hoping that within 2-3 weeks we'll have shaken enough  bugs out to meaningfully branch. Maybe sooner if we're good.

But I'm in no way religious about the branch point, so if you disagree, let's have the discussion, and we'll have the OCT make the final call.

/Lars

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4: Re: 5.0 Release Plan (response to 1)
Posted by Jade Rubick on 09/22/03 09:50 PM
Are there any plans to test upgrades?
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5: Re: 5.0 Release Plan (response to 1)
Posted by Lars Pind on 09/22/03 10:01 PM
Absolutely. Upgrade from 4.6.3 will be fixed and supported. It's sitting on a post-it on the whiteboard next to Peter's name :)

/Lars

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6: Re: 5.0 Release Plan (response to 5)
Posted by Sean Harrison on 09/23/03 06:27 AM
I'm willing to serve as a tester for the upgrade from 4.6.3 to 5.0. Just tell me what to do and when. I don't have huge amounts of time (but who does), since this is strictly free-time for me.

Shawn

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7: Re: 5.0 Release Plan (response to 1)
Posted by Lars Pind on 09/25/03 05:06 PM
I think we should shoot for a target release date of OpenACS 5.0 and .LRN 2.0 of 1 November 2003.

It's a Saturday, I know, but some of us do work Saturdays :)

We'll have several alphas and betas before then.

With the current momentum, I think that's realistic. Which reminds me, I'm totally thrilled to see all the activity and so many people helping out with finding, troubleshooting, and fixing bugs. Thanks so much, everybody!

/Lars

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8: Re: 5.0 Release Plan (response to 7)
Posted by Joel Aufrecht on 10/10/03 05:54 PM
Status as of 10 Oct 2003: According to our Release Criteria, the code is ready for alpha testing. This means that we could cut an alpha tarball, which would be used for testing. Since all of our active core developers and testers are using cvs, we won't pause to drop an alpha tarball unless somebody speaks up needing one. We did not set hard bug-count criteria to complete alpha testing. Our current bug counts are: I believe that this bug count is almost low enough to pass a reasonable alpha-testing threshold. Our only other remaining alpha hurdle is to get at least one automated test in place for each core module.

It's therefore somewhat arbitrary whether we're in alpha or beta testing. If some hero hasn't contributed a bunch of automated tests (see Simon's very helpful HOWTO for automated tests which will make it into the core docs Any Day Now), we'll probably skip that criterion and declare OpenACS 5 ready for beta testing some time next week. That will introduce new hurdles, primarily related to documentation and tidying up the place.

If you would like to help with this release, please fix your bugs, verify resolved bugs that have come back to you, or pick up new Worker Bee bugs. Even non-coders can help - some bugs just need someone to check the behavior of the current code. Which is conveniently installed on the test servers every day. We also need people to simply use their favorite packages on the test server and look for new bugs. If you read something besides English, try changing the locale and browsing the site in another language.

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9: Re: 5.0 Release Plan (response to 1)
Posted by Luigi Martini on 10/16/03 11:46 PM
The right link to the test server is this.
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10: Re: 5.0 Release Plan (response to 1)
Posted by Joel Aufrecht on 10/21/03 12:30 PM
I posted an updated release plan, which will be maintained at that location through 5.0 release. In particular, we need volunteers to develop and execute test plans for the packages that don't already have them.
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11: Re: 5.0 Release Plan (response to 1)
Posted by Dave McBride on 10/29/03 10:22 PM
I would like to add a new package to the openacs release.

How do I go about doing that? Package is EasyForms based upon the survey package.

Dave McBride

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12: Re: 5.0 Release Plan (response to 11)
Posted by Dave McBride on 10/29/03 10:25 PM
I did not mean to imply the current release, but perhaps a future release when it is appropriate to include it.

Dave McBride

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13: Re: 5.0 Release Plan (response to 1)
Posted by Jade Rubick on 11/03/03 06:26 PM
So nobody answered Dave McBride's question on how to contribute a package.

And this question gets asked a lot. The contribute page (https://openacs.org/contribute) doesn't cover this topic.

Can someone update the contribute page with how to contribute a new package to contrib or etc..

This is the type of thing we need to emphasize in order to get new developers involved in OpenACS, IMO.