[draft] Release plans for 1.9.0?

[Chris Lyttle]

On Thu, 2006-01-26 at 19:58 -0500, Derek Atkins wrote:

> > I think we should totally change the way we produce the NEWS entries.
> > We should be reporting on significant user-visible changes in the NEWS
> > file.  I think that we should be making those entries at the _same_
> > time as the changes themselves.  We can have an accumulator of entries
> > at the top of the file and then just date and version it at
> > release-time and start an empty accumulator.
> >
> > It's tempting to procrastinate but I think it's best to maintain NEWS
> > as-we-go.  I'll try to commit some entries.
> 
> I think this "main NEWS as-we-go" makes sence for patchlevel releases
> (e.g. 1.9.0->1.9.1, 1.9.1->1.9.2, etc).   I don't think it makes sense
> for major releases (1.8->2.0).  There's just WAY WAY WAY too much to
> keep track of as you go for a major release.
> 

Sorry Chris, but as release engineer I have to agree with Derek here.
I've no problem with the NEWS file being updated as you go for this beta
series, but major releases are another matter. My process for major
releases is to comb through the Changelog to compile information for the
NEWS file, this makes the NEWS file both readable and informative for
non-developers about the release. This process is in fact a relatively
minor part of each release, I spend much more time testing and
compiling.

Chris
-- 
RedHat Certified Engineer #807302549405490.
Checkpoint Certified Security Expert 2000 & NG
--------------------------------------------
        |^|
        | |   |^|
        | |^| | |  Life out here is raw 
        | | |^| |  But we will never stop
        | |_|_| |  We will never quit 
        | / __> |  cause we are Metallica
        |/ /    |
        \       /
         |     |
--------------------------------------------