Re: [PROPOSAL] Going forward with Maven 2.x releases

> Hi,
>
> I'd like to propose that we put together a plan for the next few  
> releases of Maven, and also a plan for what we're going to call  
> them. There has been quite a bit of discussion here, on IRC, and in  
> the back channels about how to structure this, so let's see if we  
> can reach a consensus.
>
> To start, I'd personally prefer to see the code we current have in  
> the release process designated as 2.1.0. It's seen a lot of change  
> to the internal implementations, and while we've gone to great  
> lengths to ensure it's functionally compatible with 2.0.x, it  
> contains a fairly risky level of change for a revision release. This  
> means that the 2.0.x branch would be rolled back to the 2.0.9  
> release, and we'd proceed toward a 2.0.10 that fixes the worst of  
> the regressions with a minimal of code change. At that point, I'd  
> prefer to see 2.0.x go into end-of-life mode soon, with 2.1 and  
> later replacing it.
>
> From there, I'd propose that we make a plan. I think we have a long  
> list of features we'd like to implement and other features we'd  
> really like to reimplement. No doubt each of us has his/her  
> favorites, but what I'd like to suggest is using the survey tool we  
> used for the plugin priorities to come up with a ordered set of  
> priorities for the features we want to include. Then, we can chop  
> that list up (maybe every fourth feature), and call them 2.2, 2.3,  
> 2.4, etc. At this point, 2.1 would be a baseline that is as near as  
> possible to perfect compatibility with 2.0.x, and 2.1.1 might fix  
> regressions in that code until we have the agreed-upon features for  
> 2.2 done.
>
> We could stay two or three major releases ahead of ourselves using  
> this list, and triage new feature requests as they come up, to see  
> if we need to reshuffle the release plan. The point is, without  
> putting calendar dates on things, we'd be putting together a what -  
> and, relatively speaking, when - plan for our releases that we could  
> publish.
>
> In case you're concerned about who's going to drive the items on  
> this list, my own feeling is that it needs to capture the sense of  
> the development community. To that end, the survey should be  
> conducted among developers, without direct input from users.  
> However, each developer should be acting in the interests of the  
> user community at least part of the time, so we need to focus on  
> balancing the cool with the useful to make sure our releases are  
> relevant to users.
>
> Of course, it also means that all of us will sometimes have to be  
> patient for the feature near and dear to our hearts to come up in  
> the release plan, and help get the other things out of the way  
> first. However, I think this could help us unify a lot of the  
> different directions we all seem to be heading WRT Maven's core, and  
> maybe keep things moving forward at a steady pace.
>
>
> To get things started, we have a long list of proposals out here:
>
> http://docs.codehaus.org/display/MAVEN/All+Proposals
>
>
> Also, from users, we have these:
>
> http://docs.codehaus.org/display/MAVENUSER/User+Proposals
>
>
> But I'm sure this is at most 10% of what people have in mind for  
> Maven. Maybe we can have a short discussion of things we need to be  
> doing in the relatively near term for the health of Maven, then cap  
> that discussion and turn it into a survey to help us consolidate  
> priorities. Then, we can chop them up into a release plan and get  
> started.
>
> Does this make sense? Does anyone feel that this is wildly off target?
>
> -john
>
> --
> John Casey
> Developer, PMC Member - Apache Maven (http://maven.apache.org)
> Blog: http://www.ejlife.net/blogs/buildchimp/
>
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