[Bioperl-l] FW: How to handle bugs in bioperl 1.4 on CPAN?

[Kevin Brown]

This was supposed to go to the list...  Still not used to Outlook...

> The points made here, as I see them:
> 
> 1)  Commits should be made to stable releases (as well as to 
> the main branch in CVS) to fix bugs as long as that release is
supported.  I 
> agree with this, but someone has to volunteer, and the length of time
a 
> release is supported also worked out.  Almost would be better going to
a regular
> release schedule (once every 3-6 months or so) where the code is given
as is
> to CPAN, whether it passes tests or not.

What I've seen in other projects is that stable is supported and bug
patched up till the next stable release.  After that support is dropped.
Once a branch was tagged stable the ONLY thing that went into it was
fixes for bugs based on the code already present.  No new features, no
refactoring of any code or modules.  I'm not certain how often things
like a stable patch release happened since most of the bugs were worked
on long before while it was still tagged as dev.  I could see, worst
case a .x release to stable every 6 months to a year until the next
stable came out if there were patches to it.  It looks like the wiki has
most of this kind of stuff documented in the previously posted link:
http://www.bioperl.org/wiki/Making_a_BioPerl_release.  I guess it would
just need a pumpkin/monkey/whatever to step up to keep things rolling...

> 2)  More communication about the direction Bioperl is 
> heading; personally I
> haven't see a problem with this as much as there is no 
> information about a
> roadmap.  That is being alleviated soon I believe, thought 
> people out there
> need to be patient.
> 
> 3)  Volunteer.  If you have something you believe needs to be 
> done and you
> believe so fervently, then put up or shut up.  Make (nice polite)
> suggestions otherwise.  Don't judge code or "the way things 
> are done" and
> don't presume what kind of experience people have that you 
> don't know and
> haven't met.  End of story.
> 
> Chris
> 
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