Re: Octave 5.0 Release

[Rik]

On 12/10/2018 09:00 AM, address@hidden wrote:

Subject:

Re: Octave 5.0 Release

From:

Carnë Draug <address@hidden>

Date:

12/10/2018 07:23 AM

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pantxo diribarne <address@hidden>

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On Thu, 6 Dec 2018 at 13:37, Pantxo <address@hidden> wrote:

Rik-4 wrote

All,

The next release of Octave, version 5.0, is scheduled for the end of the
year.  I have been the release manager for the last few cycles, but don't
have the time to do it this year.  If there are one or two people that
could lead the effort this year it would be most appreciated.  I can help
out with suggestions, and there is a checklist for the release process in
etc/RELEASE.PROCESS that can become a page on the Octave Wiki.

Let me know if you can help.  Thanks,
Rik

Hi Rik,

I can't offer my self as a release manager since I don't think I have the
required skills and because I'll be very busy during the coming month with
professional and personal duties.

I was not present when this decision of releasing new versions of Octave at
the end of each year was made at OctConf. I remember that I was quite
surprised when I heard about it and this particular date: in France (I don't
know about other countries), the end of the year is typically a period of
time where people spend much time in family (Christmas holidays) and not in
front of their computer.

I'll be happy to invest more time than before in some of the tasks for the
release, but definitely not before the beginning of January.

I think there's been some confusion here.  The plan is not to release
during the holidays.  The plan is to freeze (merge default in stable)
before the Christmas holidays and release during January (~4 weeks
after freeze).

One of the reasons was exactly the lack of time during the holidays.
Changes pushed to @ during the holidays would then not go into the
next release.

The second and third items from the Release checklist are

2) File bug reports for all outstanding bugs known, but not reported
  a) Put out a general call for reports on Octave-Maintainers and Octave-Help list

3) Review patch tracker/bug list for any patches submitted that may be included before release

The idea is to collect all the bits of code that have been floating around and have them checked in to Mercurial.  At that point, we do a feature freeze and no new or major changes can be made.  This is very likely to de-stabilize the build for a while and lead to some new bug reports.  But, we have several weeks of testing and resolving anything before an actual release.

I suspect there is also a humorous difference in perspectives here between North America and Europe.  During the holidays, work slows down, so North Americans get to spend more time on their hobbies.  While in Europe, work slows down, and people choose to spend more time with their families.  Same cause, different effect.

--Rik