Eye on Version 1.0 Release

Development
1

I know everyone is itching to add new features. Marcus technically
broke the “no new feature, no new UI, no new string” policy. We need
to focus down, fix bugs, add documentation and get 1.0 out the door.
And this means everyone.

You might want to focus on new bells and whistles. I do too. But
Avogadro will be judged on the basis of stability, bugs, and
documentation.

We only get one chance to make a first impression. We want to grow the
community – users will become contributors in many ways.

I’d like to suggest a 0.9.8 bug fix release for mid-August, and then
attempting to get a solid 1.0 release out, say by September 4th.

-Geoff

2

On Wednesday 05 August 2009 12:59:15 Geoffrey Hutchison wrote:

I know everyone is itching to add new features. Marcus technically
broke the “no new feature, no new UI, no new string” policy. We need
to focus down, fix bugs, add documentation and get 1.0 out the door.
And this means everyone.

Sorry, I meant to send an email out about focusing on 1.0 over the weekend.
Personal life, new baby, lack of sleep and car issues distracted me
significantly… Honestly, I did not think we were still in a string freeze, it
was a minor feature to add technically with one new string (I think).

You might want to focus on new bells and whistles. I do too. But
Avogadro will be judged on the basis of stability, bugs, and
documentation.

I fully agree, and for my part I will be focusing on fixing bugs, especially
any crashers, ensuring our API is good (I have a few local patches I need to
push for this) and documentation.

We only get one chance to make a first impression. We want to grow the
community – users will become contributors in many ways.

Especially with a plugin based system, assuming we are able to supply a good
core.

I’d like to suggest a 0.9.8 bug fix release for mid-August, and then
attempting to get a solid 1.0 release out, say by September 4th.

Sounds like a reasonable time frame. If thinks look OK it would be nice to tag
0.9.8 around Monday 10 August. It would be good to get 1.0 out in time for the
next Ubuntu release if possible, and definitely in time to be utilized by KDE
4.4 as an external library.

Marcus

3

On Wed, Aug 05, 2009 at 01:24:56PM -0400, Marcus D. Hanwell wrote:

Sounds like a reasonable time frame. If thinks look OK it would be nice to tag
0.9.8 around Monday 10 August. It would be good to get 1.0 out in time for the
next Ubuntu release if possible,

Just FYI, it might be too late by September for Ubuntu 9.10 - feature
freeze is August 27th according to KarmicReleaseSchedule - Ubuntu Wiki

Michael

4

On Aug 5, 2009, at 2:11 PM, Michael Banck wrote:

Just FYI, it might be too late by September for Ubuntu 9.10 - feature
freeze is August 27th according to KarmicReleaseSchedule - Ubuntu Wiki

But 0.9.8 is intended as a release candidate. Do we need to change the
name to 1.0rc1 or something?

Cheers,
-Geoff

5

On Wed, Aug 05, 2009 at 02:14:09PM -0400, Geoffrey Hutchison wrote:

On Aug 5, 2009, at 2:11 PM, Michael Banck wrote:

Just FYI, it might be too late by September for Ubuntu 9.10 - feature
freeze is August 27th according to KarmicReleaseSchedule - Ubuntu Wiki

But 0.9.8 is intended as a release candidate. Do we need to change the
name to 1.0rc1 or something?

I am not sure that helps - if the changes are reasonably small, Jordan
or I (or somebody else from Ubuntu) might be able to get an exception
approved; the earlier after the freeze the better, of course.

Michael

6

Please forgive me for intervening in a developers debate. But.

Feature freeze is one primary goal to 1.0 release.
So is bug fix.

String freeze is another matter. If a few new strings must be
included, I am shure that all “involved” translators (not occasonal
ones) will gladly make the required changes before 1.0 release,
given one or two weeks alert, the more so since the translators
mailing list now exist.

Best regards,

Louis

Le 5 août 09 à 19:24, Marcus D. Hanwell a écrit :

On Wednesday 05 August 2009 12:59:15 Geoffrey Hutchison wrote:

I know everyone is itching to add new features. Marcus technically
broke the “no new feature, no new UI, no new string” policy. We need
to focus down, fix bugs, add documentation and get 1.0 out the door.
And this means everyone.

Sorry, I meant to send an email out about focusing on 1.0 over the
weekend.
Personal life, new baby, lack of sleep and car issues distracted me
significantly… Honestly, I did not think we were still in a string
freeze, it
was a minor feature to add technically with one new string (I think).

You might want to focus on new bells and whistles. I do too. But
Avogadro will be judged on the basis of stability, bugs, and
documentation.

I fully agree, and for my part I will be focusing on fixing bugs,
especially
any crashers, ensuring our API is good (I have a few local patches I
need to
push for this) and documentation.

We only get one chance to make a first impression. We want to grow
the
community – users will become contributors in many ways.

Especially with a plugin based system, assuming we are able to
supply a good
core.

I’d like to suggest a 0.9.8 bug fix release for mid-August, and then
attempting to get a solid 1.0 release out, say by September 4th.

Sounds like a reasonable time frame. If thinks look OK it would be
nice to tag
0.9.8 around Monday 10 August. It would be good to get 1.0 out in
time for the
next Ubuntu release if possible, and definitely in time to be
utilized by KDE
4.4 as an external library.

Marcus

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7

On Aug 5, 2009, at 2:17 PM, Michael Banck wrote:

I am not sure that helps - if the changes are reasonably small, Jordan
or I (or somebody else from Ubuntu) might be able to get an exception
approved; the earlier after the freeze the better, of course.

Good to keep in mind. I think the idea would be to catch any remaining
bug fixes.

So the goal should be to have code ready for the Ubuntu freeze, and
fix up any documentation afterwards for the official 1.0 release.

-Geoff

8

String freeze is another matter. If a few new strings must be
included, I am shure that all “involved” translators (not occasonal
ones) will gladly make the required changes before 1.0 release,
given one or two weeks alert, the more so since the translators
mailing list now exist.

No, I was gently teasing Marcus about breaking the rules.

The main reason for the “string freeze” was to prevent us from
changing too much of the text or UI for screenshots and translations.
I think the current state of translations is great.

-Geoff

9

On Wednesday 05 August 2009 14:27:14 Geoffrey Hutchison wrote:

On Aug 5, 2009, at 2:17 PM, Michael Banck wrote:

I am not sure that helps - if the changes are reasonably small, Jordan
or I (or somebody else from Ubuntu) might be able to get an exception
approved; the earlier after the freeze the better, of course.

Good to keep in mind. I think the idea would be to catch any remaining
bug fixes.

So the goal should be to have code ready for the Ubuntu freeze, and
fix up any documentation afterwards for the official 1.0 release.

I think that this is a good goal to work towards. If we get a 0.9.8 out around
the 10th, that should be pretty near final. Anything going into 1.0 would be
bug fixes, translations, and may be a few performance enhancements. If it makes
it easier to sell by calling it 1.0.0_rc1 then we could do that closer to the
freeze too - that is what they will be.

Marcus