Re: It is time for a feature freeze (it is NOW or never).

[Kim F. Storm]

Kenichi Handa <address@hidden> writes:

> In article <address@hidden>, address@hidden (Kim F. Storm) writes:
> > I suggest that we make a complete feature freeze on HEAD for 21.4 NOW !!!
> 
> I have thought that we are going to take the following
> schedule.
> 
> (1) Release the current RC branch as 21.4.

I have no opinion on this.

> (2) Feature freeze on HEAD.

Yes.

> (3) Merge HEAD into RC branch, and make it 21.4.50.

There is no need to merge to the existing RC branch.

We just create a new RC branch from HEAD for 21.5 named EMACS_21_5_RC.

> (4) Merge Unicode branch into HEAD, and make it 22.0.0.

Yes.

I suggest we also merge the multi-tty branch to HEAD quickly.


> (5) Start pretest of 21.5 based on RC.

(With RC = 21_5_RC):

Fix all 21.4 => 21.5 references on RC.
Then start pretest from RC.

> (6) Release RC branch as 21.5.

Yes.

> ...
> (7) Feature freeze on HEAD (i.e. Unicode version)

I suppose that bidi support is not mature enough for 22.1 --

actually IMO, bidi support would warrent another major number,
i.e. 23.1.

> (8) Merge HEAD into RC branch, and make it 22.0.50.

No, again just make a 22_1_RC branch from HEAD.

> 
> Do you intend to skip (1)?  Perhaps, that will be better
> because we can avoid disappointing users who exepect new
> features in the release of this long delay.

Since there is some confusion as to what 21.4 is or would be, I
suggest we aim for using 21.5 as the version for the release from
the new RC branch.   If things take too long, we still have the option
to release 21.4 from the old RC branch.


> 
> > If we don't do it now, and start merging unicode and bidi to HEAD, I
> > fear that a 22.1 release is at least 1 year further into the future --
> > and that CVS HEAD will go through a phase of lesser stable code than
> > we have been used to for quite some time (I'm not judging the quality
> > of the code on those branches, it's just that it hasn't been tested to
> > the same extent as HEAD, so we should expect problems).
> 
> I agree.  But, I think bug-fixing work for 21.5 (or 21.4)
> must be done on RC branch so that (4) can be done promptly
> and we can have more users of Unicode version, which boosts
> the release of 22.1.

Yes, lets branch now for 21.5 and fix bugs on the RC branch.

-- 
Kim F. Storm <address@hidden> http://www.cua.dk