Re: stable branch release policy [was Re: Possible bug in intersect]

[John W. Eaton]

On 12-Apr-2009, Jaroslav Hajek wrote:

| I think the correct policy would be *regressions only*, as has been
| suggested by John, but I don't think that's what most users expect.
| That would likely require more frequent stable branches.

I'd like to have this as well, but to make it work, I think we will
need to have some additional structure in the way we work with the
main development tree.  I'd be happy to use something like the stages
used in GCC development.  I can't remember the details and can't check
at the moment, but the idea is to have a feature freeze and reduce the
number of important regressions to zero some time before a release.
The schedule is more or less based on time, not features, but my
impression is that it tends to slip if more time is required to fix
bugs before a release.  What I don't want to do is branch for a
release at an arbitrary time no matter what the condition of the
trunk.  If we do that, I think the release branch will be neglected,
and fixing things on the branch will waste time as most patches will
also need to be applied to the trunk.  Instead, I think we should only
branch when the trunk is in reasonbly good condition.  We should not
have to apply very many patches after the branch to make a release.

jwe