Releases

[thelusiv]

Releases were discussed in the recent IRC meeting. Here is the summary: http://vdrift.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?p=11685#11685

We reached the conclusion that the next release should be made when the replay system is fixed. We also agreed that the project should use a main development branch (on both the code and data repositories) for development of new features, as well as the trunk which will be for the stable version.

We did not reach a conclusion on how often to release, however some suggestions were made:

• release every 4-6 months
  
• release (automatically?) when someone merges something from development branch to trunk
  
• do not mix feature-based release strategy with fixed release intervals
  
• use a merge window to get new features into the stable version on time for release (otherwise make them wait until the following release).

I've mentioned that I am willing to help with preparing for releases, migrating code from development to stable, and updating the issue tracker. How does everyone feel about the following:

We should release after replays are fixed as discussed in the meeting. During the release process, we should create the development branches in the source code and data repositories, and start actively using an issue tracker. Following that, we should plan for a two-month merge window, followed by a two-month integration/testing/bugfixing period. After those four months, and when the trunk is stable again, we can push out another release, and repeat this process.

I'm interested to learn how other projects use merge windows. I'll research this topic more as we get closer to being ready for release.