Re: 4.2 release

[Rik]

On 07/04/2016 05:57 AM, address@hidden wrote:
> Subject: > Release 4.2.0 next steps > From: > LachlanA <address@hidden> > Date: > 07/03/2016 06:40 PM > To: > address@hidden > List-Post: > <mailto:address@hidden> > Content-Transfer-Encoding: > 7bit > Precedence: > list > MIME-Version: > 1.0 > Message-ID: > <address@hidden> > Content-Type: > text/plain; charset=us-ascii > Message: > 1 > > Greetings all, > > Almost all of the bugs in Savannah that fit into one of the categories Rik > mentioned have now been tentatively triaged.  It would be great if someone > gave a second opinion. > > I haven't yet looked at the non-bug patches.  Are there guidelines for > pruning, or should I just go through all 150 of them?

The patch tracker definitely sees only infrequent attention.  It would be good to go through all reports.  From what I have glimpsed, many of the patches address very particular concerns which may be of interest to only a small number of users.  These are hard to justify including after considering the diligence effort required to reformat them to Octave coding standards, add documentation, and add BIST checking.  But certainly there will be some hidden gems on the tracker.

> > > Is it time for people to start claiming bugs?

Almost.  Let's wait until next Sunday, June 10th, to declare the feature addition part of the release process complete.  Since we are not yet on a Chrome-like release schedule every 6 weeks, it is important to get as much as possible into each release.

> > Also, there are a lot of us who can write and review patches but not commit > them.  What is the best way for us to help?  I see several options. > 1. We can be paired up so that we review each other's work before it gets > the final pre-commit review. > 2. Each person with commit rights can be paired with someone without, to > spread the load further than just Rik and Mike pushing our patches.

We do have a few more individuals who are capable of reviewing any patch affecting any part of the code--jwe and jordi--but even split among four it is quite a load.  On the other hand, we also have many Octave maintainers with specific skills and interests.  The full list is here https://savannah.gnu.org/project/memberlist.php?group=octave.  I think finding the right partner, and adding them to the CC list for a bug report, might be a good way forward.  A maintainer can always decline and remove themselves from the bug report if it is not right.

This is my idea of the interests

MXE, Windows : John Donoghue, Philip, Avinoam, Pascal
GUI : Torsten
OpenGL, audio : Andreas
OpenGL graphics, plotting, gl2ps : Pantxo
Mac, gnuplot : Ben Abbott
Special functions, linear algebra : Marco Caliari
Octave Forge packages, Imagemagick : Carnë
ODEs : Carlo de Falco
classdef : Michael Goffioul
ui*code : Kai Habel
general : jwe, Jordi, Mike, Rik, Kai Ohlhus

--Rik