status of release (was: status of mutopia project)

[Graham Percival]

On Fri, Apr 08, 2011 at 06:02:01PM +0000, Keith OHara wrote:
> A recent stable LilyPond version would also help.  I converted the scores I
> was working on from 2.12 to 2.13, to avoid difficulties with \partcombine,
> but then 2.13 kept changing so I've abandoned the 2.13 versions and now have
> pretty much quit using LilyPond.

Ouch.  When a developer as skilled and active as you says this, it
really emphasizes the magnitude of the problem.

Looking over the past few weeks, I don't think the problem is the
programmers.  They've been fixing bugs quickly; a few times they
added regressions, but those are also fixed without a long delay.

I think the biggest problem at the moment is communication between
users and programmers.
- some users are not following the guidelines:
    http://lilypond.org/bug-reports
  Bug reports should go to bug-lilypond, not the users list!  If
  you think it's of general interest, then CC it to both lists.

- the Bug Squad is still losing some issues.  This is extremely
  unfortunate, and it will hopefully improve over the next few
  weeks.
  However, this is something that users can help with:
  if you have not heard back from a Bug Squad member within
    ** 48 hours **
  then please assume that your bug report has been
    ** LOST **
  and send the email again.

  It gives me no pleasure to make this announcement, and I really
  hope that things will improve.  But for the forseeable future,
  please follow that policy.

- users could help each other supply good bug reports.  If a
  bug report has been rejected because it does not have a
  Tiny example:
    http://lilypond.org/tiny-examples.html
  then an experienced user could spend a few minutes creating
  such an example.  This would be very appreciated by
  everybody involved, especially if the initial bug reporter
  is a bit uncertain about lilypond, has some difficulty with
  English, etc.

  It would be nice if the Bug Squad had sufficient resources
  to do this as well, but that unfortunately is not the case.


Honestly, if we keep on going at the current rate, then I don't
think we can get 2.14 out before June.  But if a few users helped
out the bug process by actively creating Tiny examples, and
resending bug reports to bug-lilypond when they get lost, then I
really think that we can get 2.14 out in May.

Cheers,
- Graham