X.org Foundation - Release Wranglers Call Minutes - 16th April 2004

All,

Attendees:

Alan Coopersmith
Egbert Eich
Jim Gettys
Howard Greenwell
Stuart Kreitman
Kevin Martin
Leon Shiman
Daniel Stone


Minutes:

1. Status

Release done.
Web still has references to 6.6 - Howard to look into fixing web-site.

2. Post-Mortem.

a) Documentation.

Biggest problem was to get the documentation updated. All documentation 
seemed to be pushed to the end.
Release notes have to be pushed to the end. Hoping now that XFree86 issues 
resolved, may be easier in future.
Jim commented that lots of XFree86 docs are in old SGML.

Egbert mentioned that there are some translations into XML. Coversion to 
XML would be appropriate.
Needs to be able to be handled by modern tools for XML. (Eric Raymond says 
tools for Linux are poor).
Eric says has a "doclister" product that he wrote, and has tools to do the 
conversion.
All are part of a Fedora 1 / Red Hat 9 installation.

Jim suggesting that we should go with these tools, and start converting the 
documentation.
Jim will circulate the details to the release wranglers list.

Happy to experiment on changes to the docs, but not to throw away what we 
have. Suggesting tool call "doxygen" to mix code and document.
Egbert not happy to mix documentation and code. Needs too much discipline.

Jim summarized that people, as time permits,
   - people should convert documents to "docbook XML"
   - "doclister" can be used for "man" pages.

Egbert asked if there is a good tool to edit XML which helps with the 
markup. Jim will talk to Eric, also mentioned XML mode in Emacs.
Daniel thinks there there is a KXML used in KDE.
Leon will also investigate what is available in other areas that that XML 
is more prevelent.

b) Release Tags.

Mis-understnading about release tags - minor and has been fixed. Everyone 
happy now, and change in tags documented in code.

c) Tree Branch

Issue with SUN making new branch on the release branch - Alan explained it 
was a timing issue. Will merge back in when back from sick leave.
Egbert will help with merge back to branch on CURRENT if Necessary. SUN to 
contact Egbert if help requested.

No other items mentioned. Egbert thought the release worked rather well.

d) Development Confusion

Daniel mentioned confusion of where main development is going on. Confusion 
with the Xouvert project.
Should update the Wiki page - a line or two on the Project Info page would 
help direct people to the right place.

Suggest the name should be changed. Some suggests made. Jim and Daniel will 
discuss what the server name might be in the modular development.


3. Modular/Monolithic

Daniel has problems with Monolithic tree. Issues of initial loading, and 
also pulling in things like fonts, which may not be used.
Egbert said could be easy to build with new driver included. Daniel disagreed.

Discussion of how to promote binary compatibility. Should not have to 
rebuild drivers every time X is rebuilt.

Jim commented already had a good modular structure. Egbert noted that the 
transport is in at least 4 places.
Jim feels there should be a good abstract interface and have the transport 
as a separate library to be linked to dynamically. Egbert approved.

Stuart interjected that he is not against the modular tree. Does have good 
advantages - but does not feel these are enough to change his delivery 
schedules to move from the monolithic tree.

Egbert suggested that the "modular" and "imake" environments should try to 
live together in the one tree to make both in the next release.

To be continued on next call on Monday.

Howard.