ANNOUNCE: we will freeze NetBeans 3.1 on 2000-Oct-30

Hi all,

this mail was posted on nbdev yesterday.  Keri rightfully reminded me
that I should cross-post to the other NB mailing lists as well because
this can be of general interest.

Regards,

    -- Trung


---------%<------

 From: Trung Duc Tran <[email protected]>
 Subject: [nbdev] ANNOUNCE: we will freeze NetBeans 3.1 on 2000-Oct-30
 To: [email protected]
 Date: 02 Oct 2000 16:54:19 +0200


Hello everybody,

after some discussions on [email protected] NetBeans module
owners have agreed to set the freeze day for the next release at the end
of this month, October 30, 2000.  All module owners who spoke up voted
to give this release the version number 3.1.

What does it mean for us, NetBeans developers?

- on Oct 30 a new branch called 'release31' will be made off the CVS
  trunk

- developers are expected to finish new features before the freeze

- all UI elements are expected to be stable after the freeze so that our
  docs writers will be able to finish the documentation.  Any UI changes
  made in the release31 branch after the freeze will have to be
  announced in advance

- only bug fixes will be allowed in the CVS release31 branch

- developers are expected to do their best to keep the trunk as stable
  as possible.  Please don't start any work on a new feature on the
  trunk which you don't think you will be able to finish before Oct 30.

- if someone discovers any significant issues with the code we have in
  the CVS trunk (the dev builds), please bring them up ASAP on nbdev

The above of course applies only to the core and modules which are
included in the standard NetBeans distribution.  Developers are free to
do anything they want in experimental modules.

Note there is a consensus on nbdev to include the scripting and ant
integration module in NetBeans 3.1.  We will modify the build script to
bundle these two modules by default.

Although we don't know how long it will take to stabilize code in the
release31 branch, I believe the final release 3.1 can be made before
Christmas time.

I volunteer to act as the NB 3.1 release coordinator.

    -- Trung

PS the CVS branch name for NB 3.0 was stable30.  IMO this was a mistake
because at the moment when we branch off the trunk for stabilization
works the code of course is not stable.  The new naming convention is
releaseXY.  This was a part of my "Proposal of NetBeans release
process."  Nobody protested so I consider all of you have agreed with
the new naming scheme.