[Bioperl-l] forthcoming release schedule

[Hilmar Lapp]

Recently we had a discussion among the core team (Ewan, Jason, and
myself) regarding the future release schedule and policy. The
result is the following proposal.

1) Faster release of new functionality but maintenance of stable
branches for those who require it. 
	o Bioperl switches to a policy of stable branch and development
	release series running in parallel, a concept stolen from Linux.
	o Stable branches will be maintained by bug-fix releases until
the
	next stable series, but a branch will rarely gain new
functionality
	(this is similar to the	present stable release series).
	o Development releases on the other hand will not be maintained
(no
	bugfixes etc). They will in general represent snapshots from the
main
	development trunk that are guaranteed to build, that is, all
tests
	pass; ideally they have also been tested for cross-platform
problems.
	o Stable branches will be assigned even numbers, whereas
development
	release series start with the next odd number. 
2) Code maturity reflected in the release version numbering.
	o Reflecting the big leap towards a mature codebase that has
happened
	for the 0.6.x and 0.7.x releases, the next stable release series
will
	be declared 1.0. We anticipate this to happen in summer this
year.
	o A tasklist for 1.0 will be started on Wiki.
3) Imminent release plans:
	o We want to make a point release for the 0.7.x series by
beginning
	of May (Labor Day! :-)
	o Shortly after 0.7.1 we'll start the first development release
	series, which will get the virtual version 0.9.0.

Due to the current release version, both stable and development
numbers will be odd until the 1.0. We could rename 0.7 to 0.8 :)

Comments from people out there appreciated.

	Hilmar
	
-- 
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Hilmar Lapp                              email: hilmarl@yahoo.com
GNF, San Diego, Ca. 92122                phone: +1 858 812 1757
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