[Bioperl-l] release 0.7 schedule

[Hilmar Lapp]

Ewan Birney wrote:
> 
> Hilmar proposed that we aimed to branch for 0.7 before christmas. I
> honestly think this is unachievable and best to say this up front. I
> suspect we are looking at an early janurary branch point. My feeling
> is that it is going to take another week at least to bash out a plan and
> a todo list (along with rough assignments), then about 2/3 weeks of doing
> this, and then another 2 weeks of annoying "chasing down minor things"
> 

I have been thinking about this, too. Considering the time passed since
the first 0.6 was released, and provided this is not far off from an
average we can reckon with, there are likely to be at most 2-3 release
series a year. This means that it does matter what we decide to include
for people who are going to use the release, and that legacies of
untrusted code branched off in a hurry will keep bothering us for a
substantial time (apart from the users :) 

So, we need to find a good balance. The yardstick for setting up a plan
and todo list should be the goals we consider essential and/or important
for the 0.7 release. If it turns out that this plan cannot be achieved
within the time left, and we don't want to omit points from the list, we
move the deadline to a more reasonable date. However, I don't think it
is sensible to extend beyond January, and any plan we come up with
should be achievable until then, otherwise there's something wrong. In
addition, to avoid misunderstandings, moving the deadline does not mean
that the plan to be finalized soon is then no longer final, even if we
succeed earlier than anticipated (which we won't, it would the very
first time in software projects).

	Hilmar 

-- 
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Hilmar Lapp                                email: hlapp@gmx.net
GNF, San Diego, Ca. 92122                  phone: +1 858 812 1757
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