Release Team Meeting on 14 March 2008
First IRC meeting of the release team takes place on March 14th at 1 pm UTC.
Agenda¶
The agenda is open and anyone may add items to it. Please initial next to items if you add them. You are also free to add general notes or more verbose ideas / things to bring to others attention etc at the bottom of the page.
- Meet the team - quick round of introductions - TS
- Questions and answers about the ReleaseProcessOverview - TS
- Questions about team members roles in the release process - TS
- ReleaseSchedule for 2008 leading up to QGIS 1.0 - TS
- Planning for release of 0.9.2 (see ReleaseChecklist0.9.2) - TS
Notes¶
Log from email discussion about team roles:
Maning:
- Update QGIS.org
- Post article to QGIS blog
- Send to relevant mailing lists.
- Document the places you have updated / submitted and add a section to http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/ReleaseChecklistTemplate and add to each release checklist with tickboxes to show items completed.
Anne:
You wrote:
"Among all tasks, I will choose the translation. I can work either on code, web pages, templates, it makes no difference for me. This can be a way of start working deep in QGIS development."
Well it would certainly help to have press releases translated to your native languages and sent to any relevant mailing lists in thos languages. If you wish to translate QGIS user interface itself or QGIS documentation, these are not releaseteam activities (though work in these areas is still welcomed!) and I would point you to http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/TranslatorsCorner and to Otto who coordinates the translation activities.
- Translate release announcement to Italian (and other languages you
are comfortable with) and send to relevant mailing lists. - Document the places you have submitted and add a section to
http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/ReleaseChecklistTemplate and add to each release checklist with tickboxes to show items complete
Richard:
I didnt receive any indication from you (my apologies if you did respond and I missed it) as to what kind of a commitment you would like to make, so I kept it simple for now - let me know if you are happy to take on other tasks...
- Translate release announcement to Dutch and send to relevant mailing lists.
- Document the places you have submitted and add a section to http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/ReleaseChecklistTemplate and add to each release checklist with tickboxes to show items complete
Agustin:
Since you seemed fairly open to help in any way I was going to ask if you would be happy to do the following:
- Draw up the new features list at the point of feature freeze (will
require some liason with developers and / or perusing of svn commit logs) - Provide Quality Assurance in the release process - basically this would mean going through the checklist after me and checking that items have been completed correctly - this could be really useful in improving the professionalism of the releases as Mostly I work on QGIS late at night and things are usually a rush in release preparation so sometimes mistakes get made or things get ommitted.
- Translate release announcement to Spanish and send to relevant mailing lists.
- Document the places you have submitted and add a section to
http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/ReleaseChecklistTemplate and add to each release checklist with tickboxes to show items complete.
All:
I would like to create a low volume releaseteam mailing list which we can use to orchestrate releases. Does anyone have any objections to joining 'yet another mailing list'? I would like to improve the press announcements from beyond a simple 'its out' to perhaps include a nice web page with some screenshots of key gui visible changes and perhaps some other content to generate interest - for example a short quotation from a developer or two has has introduced new features. To this end I was going to suggest that before the release we collaboratively draw up such a release using the wiki and mailing list. Anne or / and Richard would you be up for archestrating this?
Log¶
[09:41am] timlinux: ?whoami
[09:41am] DodgyDude: timlinux: I don't recognize you.
[09:43am] timlinux: aghisla: what time is it there? 20 mins from meeting start or 1h20min?
[09:44am] aghisla: timlinux: 20 mins
[09:44am] timlinux: ok
[09:45am] timlinux: aghisla: & Loboalegre as an aside are you both compiing QGIS from source or are you using the binary packages?
[09:45am] aghisla: timlinux: i use binary packages
[09:46am] timlinux: ok
[09:46am] timlinux: aghisla: and on which OS?
[09:47am] aghisla: timlinux: ubuntu 7.04 64bit
[09:47am] aghisla: 7.10, sorry
[09:47am] Loboalegre: I'm also using binary packs, both ubuntu and win.
[09:48am] timlinux: ok good
[09:48am] timlinux: some of the steps may be a bit more complicated if you are using the binary only versions (timeline wise) but its no problem I think
[09:50am] aghisla: timlinux: i never compiled before, could be a good start
[09:51am] Loboalegre: I'm eager to learn how to compile truncks and branches, no problem if I have to do it, I'll do it (for ubuntu, not for win)
[09:51am] timlinux: ok great
[09:52am] timlinux: Ill happily give you tips where needed...though I have already documented the process in great detail in INSTALL in sources and here: http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/BuildingFromSource
[09:52am] DodgyDude: <http://ln-s.net/1g:h> (at wiki.qgis.org)
[09:52am] timlinux: and compiling on ubuntu is really easy
[09:52am] Loboalegre: good, I'll look into it this afternoon, dont have my ubuntu machine here now.
[09:53am] timlinux: It might be helpful if you are all willing to learn to compile since then we can get a start on writing press releases etc before binary packages are actually available
[09:53am] aghisla: right
[09:54am] Loboalegre: ok, it's something I had to do anyway. Good to have some pressure.
[09:54am] rduif joined the chat room.
[09:55am] aghisla: Loboalegre:
[09:55am] timlinux: goie dag rduif
[09:55am] timlinux:
[09:55am] rduif:
[09:55am] rduif: ook goeiedag
[09:55am] rduif: how
[09:55am] timlinux: (sorry for my bad spelling)
[09:56am] rduif: you're practicing south-african?
[09:56am] timlinux: so we are just waiting for Maning I think
[09:56am] aghisla: yes
[09:56am] timlinux: ya I can speak afrikaans...though a bit rusty being 7 years out the country
[09:57am] aghisla: and leonardo
[09:57am] Loboalegre: are you still in Brazil, Tim?
[09:57am] timlinux: ah yes leonardo to
[09:57am] aghisla: i contacted him right now
[09:57am] timlinux: Loboalegre: yes Ive been here 2 years
[09:57am] rduif: afrikaans for us alway sounds rusty
[09:58am] timlinux: Loboalegre: Im returning to SA at the end of May
[09:58am] timlinux: rduif: I think the same when I hear dutch
[09:58am] aghisla:
[09:58am] timlinux: it sounds 'quaint'
[09:59am] timlinux: let me try emailing maning
[09:59am] aghisla: also some Northern Italy dialects are quite rusty
[10:00am] timlinux: aghisla: are you Flemish Belgian or French Belgian?
[10:00am] timlinux: aghisla: and what were you tracking with your GPS on the release team pic you put up?
[10:01am] timlinux: Reminder: our agenda for the meeting is here: http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/Meeting1_-_14_March_2008
[10:01am] DodgyDude: <http://ln-s.net/1g:u> (at wiki.qgis.org)
[10:02am] aghisla: timlinux: french belgian, but not thoroughbred
[10:02am] timlinux: and its probably good to have these pages open in browser tabs for quick reference: http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/ReleaseChecklist0.9.2 and http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/ReleaseChecklistTemplate
[10:03am] DodgyDude: <http://ln-s.net/1g:w> (at wiki.qgis.org)
[10:03am] timlinux: aghisla:
[10:03am] timlinux: ok lets wait 2 more minutes and start if the others dont show
[10:03am] timlinux: Ill brb
[10:05am] Loboalegre: Perhaps http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/ReleaseProcessOverview alos
[10:05am] DodgyDude: <http://ln-s.net/1gA3> (at wiki.qgis.org)
[10:05am] aghisla: timlinux: red squirrels near Bormio, Lombardy
[10:05am] timlinux: yeah good idea
[10:06am] timlinux: aghisla: ah a biologist
[10:06am] aghisla: sort of..
[10:06am] Loboalegre: aghisla:is that survey part of a research program?
[10:07am] timlinux: aghisla: so is rduif by the looks of his profile....Loboalegre what is your field? Remote sensing?
[10:07am] aghisla: yes
[10:07am] aghisla: ASPER project Alpine Red Squirrel Ecology Research
[10:07am] Loboalegre: Yes, RS of environment, analysis of landcover change, deforestation, spatial stats...
[10:07am] aghisla: (pick up a link)
[10:08am] timlinux: aghisla: did you manage to poke leonardo?
[10:09am] timlinux: ok folks lets get started I think....we can send the logs on to those who couldnt attend
[10:09am] timlinux: all ok with that?
[10:09am] Loboalegre: ok
[10:09am] FrankW joined the chat room.
[10:10am] timlinux: so a quick recap of our agenda:
[10:10am] timlinux: Meet the team - quick round of introductions - TS
[10:10am] timlinux: Questions and answers about the ReleaseProcessOverview - TS
[10:10am] timlinux: Questions about team members roles in the release process - TS
[10:10am] timlinux: ReleaseSchedule for 2008 leading up to QGIS 1.0 - TS
[10:10am] timlinux: Planning for release of 0.9.2 (see ReleaseChecklist0.9.2) - TS
[10:10am] aghisla: timlinux: leonardo doesn't answer, i hope he'll join the meeting
[10:10am] timlinux: ok
[10:11am] PeteE joined the chat room.
[10:11am] timlinux: So I think we already did a bit of 'meet and greet' (agenda item 1) - I would encourage you to add a short bio to the http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/ReleaseTeam page too so that we can put on a friendly face to the world (if you didnt already do so)
[10:12am] timlinux: So lets proceed to the release overview process
[10:13am] timlinux: I should start by saying that the release process is a (continual) work in progress
[10:13am] timlinux: and will probably undergo some substantial changes as we get used to working as a team
[10:13am] timlinux: I have tried to document everything I do
[10:14am] timlinux: but undoubtedly there will be some things that are not documented / not documented well enough
[10:14am] timlinux: Have you all been through http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/ReleaseProcessOverview and if yes do you have any questions?
[10:14am] DodgyDude: <http://ln-s.net/1gA3> (at wiki.qgis.org)
[10:15am] aghisla: yes
[10:15am] rduif: yep
[10:15am] timlinux: These steps are outlined in much more detail in the release checklist too
[10:15am] Loboalegre: yes, things will be more clear once we start, I hope
[10:15am] timlinux: ok
[10:16am] aghisla: there is much work to do, but i can't see how to divide it among different people
[10:16am] timlinux: so I have purposely held off from doing *anything* for the 0.9.2 final release until we had this meeting so we can walk together through and entire release from start to finishe
[10:17am] timlinux: once we have been through one release cycle I think we can re-evaluate how to split the workload
[10:17am] aghisla: ok!
[10:17am] Loboalegre: ok
[10:17am] timlinux: in 0.9.2 release we have a small advantage in that there are few changes since 0.9.2rc1
[10:18am] timlinux: so we can start doing some things like press release preparation etc already
[10:18am] timlinux: Today I went through the release checklist and release checklist template and reorganised it a bit to make it hopefully easier to follow
[10:18am] timlinux: the basic idea is to try to follow a two month release cycle
[10:19am] timlinux: typically we will start the release cycle with a meeting like this
[10:19am] timlinux: to discuss any issues that arose in the previous release
[10:19am] timlinux: and to plan the next one
[10:19am] jef joined the chat room.
[10:20am] timlinux: before we start doing that if there are no questions about the release process over view, lets move on to the next agenda point Questions about team members roles in the release process
[10:20am] aghisla: no questions from me
[10:21am] timlinux: ok
[10:21am] rduif: I think it's clear to me that I form a 'team' with anne to do some pr?
[10:21am] timlinux: rduif: yup that sounds great
[10:21am] aghisla: rduif: ok!
[10:21am] timlinux: and coordinate the pr to coincide properly with the release
[10:22am] timlinux: Im just trying to find the list of 'who does what' that we made
[10:22am] timlinux: 1 sec
[10:22am] timlinux: does anyone have it handy?
[10:23am] aghisla: the log of emails?
[10:23am] timlinux: if you do can you paste to http://rafb.net/paste
[10:23am] timlinux: the one email that listed person by person responsibilities
[10:23am] aghisla: yes
[10:23am] aghisla: pasted
[10:24am] Loboalegre: we actually have it as notes just after the agenda
[10:24am] aghisla: http://rafb.net/p/cTQJvk86.html
[10:24am] timlinux: ah silly me
[10:24am] aghisla:
[10:24am] timlinux: ok good
[10:24am] timlinux: so lets go person by person (for those present and just check if all is ok)
[10:24am] Loboalegre: I start.
[10:24am] timlinux: ok
[10:26am] timlinux: Marco Hugentobler (digitising)
[10:26am] timlinux: Martin Dobias (python bindings)
[10:26am] timlinux: Gary Sherman (drag and drop & python repo)
[10:26am] timlinux: Peter Ersts (raster refactor)
[10:26am] timlinux: Frank Warmerdam (gdal capi port)
[10:26am] timlinux: Tim Sutton (qrc style support)
[10:26am] timlinux: Magnus Homann (rev up, rotating and scaling symbols)
[10:26am] timlinux: I suggest to split the feature list into two parts:
[10:26am] timlinux: - For users
[10:26am] timlinux: - For developers
[10:26am] timlinux: As some of the more esoteric developer stuff wont mean anything to
[10:26am] timlinux: normal users. It would be good also to ask the dev for screenshots
[10:26am] timlinux: showing the key features they have implemented. The tone of the
[10:26am] timlinux: feature lists should be more conversational to try to engage people
[10:26am] timlinux: without overloading them with technical terms.
[10:26am] timlinux: those were the key people I suggested contacting
[10:26am] timlinux: my idea is that Loboalegre would compile the 'Master List' of changes
[10:26am] timlinux: add it to the checklist
[10:27am] timlinux: from that list we will base various parts of the release process
[10:27am] timlinux: including:
[10:27am] timlinux: the 'whats new' in help about
[10:27am] timlinux: the press releases
[10:27am] timlinux: the messages to email lists
[10:27am] timlinux: etc
[10:27am] timlinux: there are two ways to approach compiling this list
[10:28am] timlinux: I usually look at the svn logs
[10:28am] Â PeteE raises his hand
[10:28am] timlinux: PeteE: go ahead
[10:28am] timlinux: (maybe just introduce yourself quickly too for those present)
[10:28am] PeteE: Is there anyway to run something like svn2log to generate a list of what has changed, could be a easy way to get them started
[10:29am] Loboalegre: I understand, after looking at Generate the changelog section in the 0.9.2 checklist, that I would use that log as a base?
[10:29am] PeteE: I'm am working on some of the raster refactoring, you will see my commits as (ersts)
[10:29am] timlinux: PeteE: I have documented one way to do the changelog in the checklists as Loboalegre mentions above
[10:30am] PeteE: ah ok
[10:30am] Â PeteE sits back down
[10:30am] timlinux: Ive never used svn2log so it would be certainly worth looking at if you think its useful
[10:30am] timlinux: my way is kinda low tech
[10:30am] timlinux:
[10:31am] timlinux: Loboalegre: yes so you would use that log as a base
[10:31am] PeteE: http://www.core.com.pl/svn2log/
[10:31am] Loboalegre: the easiest and fastest the best, though
[10:31am] timlinux: but the idea would be to create a 'human' friendly list
[10:31am] timlinux: which is where I was thinking it could be good to approach the devs themselves
[10:32am] timlinux: and ask for a paragraph or so on the key things they have done
[10:32am] Loboalegre: yes, I understand. It would be good seeing one of these logs.
[10:32am] timlinux: Loboalegre: ok I can walk you through that off meeting
[10:32am] Loboalegre: ok
[10:32am] timlinux: Loboalegre: its probably also a very good idea to subscribe to the qgis-commits list
[10:33am] Loboalegre: hope it's low traffic
[10:33am] timlinux: no but you can digest it
[10:34am] timlinux: traffic can get fairly high when lots of dev actvity is going on
[10:34am] Loboalegre: ...ok
[10:34am] timlinux: but I leave it to your discretion finding the best way to get history
[10:34am] Loboalegre: Let's try and evaluate afterwards
[10:34am] timlinux: all that I ask of everyone is that they document what they do on the master release template and current release checklist
[10:35am] timlinux: so that we can have a easily replicated procedure
[10:35am] timlinux: so feel free to remove what I documented there if you come up with something better
[10:35am] aghisla: ok
[10:35am] timlinux: (including possibly using PeteE 's svn2log suggestion)
[10:36am] timlinux: So I envisage the outcome as two things:
[10:36am] timlinux: 1) a bullet for list of changes
[10:36am] timlinux: separated into 'for users' and 'for developers' sections
[10:36am] timlinux: and 2) a more wordy 'here are the cool new things in this release'
[10:37am] timlinux: which will be done in collaboration with devs themselves
[10:37am] timlinux: but edited by you / the team to make it nice and readable and coherent
[10:37am] timlinux: (not that all devs are incoherent )
[10:37am] aghisla: you posted kde4 announcement, it's a good model
[10:38am] timlinux: yeah something along those lines
[10:38am] aghisla: screenshots are more valuable and catchy than words
[10:38am] timlinux: and then after text is done we come along after and make screenies
[10:38am] aghisla: yes
[10:38am] timlinux: Loboalegre: all ok with that?
[10:39am] Loboalegre: yes
[10:39am] timlinux: I dont have a good sense of timelines etc for these things yet so we will play by ear for this release and document the master template so that next release the process is more a 'follow the recipe' affair
[10:39am] timlinux: Loboalegre: the other part of your list was Q&A
[10:40am] Loboalegre: Right. Could you explain a bit that part?
[10:40am] timlinux: once again this is probably something that everyone can participate it but the idea is that you would be the Q&A 'boss'
[10:40am] timlinux: ok so
[10:40am] timlinux: if you look down the release checklist
[10:40am] timlinux: http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/ReleaseChecklist0.9.2
[10:40am] DodgyDude: <http://ln-s.net/1g:w> (at wiki.qgis.org)
[10:41am] timlinux: you will see a bunch of things that need checking off
[10:41am] timlinux: e.g. Update the splash screen (minor and major relases!)
[10:41am] timlinux: Update main.cpp with the release name
[10:41am] timlinux: Ill be ticking these off as I go through them
[10:41am] maning joined the chat room.
[10:41am] timlinux: hi manning!
[10:42am] maning: hello! Just got home from work. Are we starting?
[10:42am] timlinux: maning I mean
[10:42am] timlinux: maning yes Im afraid we had to start without you
[10:42am] timlinux: 1 moment I will paste the logs of what we discussed so far
[10:42am] maning: Oh sorry. Please move on.
[10:43am] timlinux: http://rafb.net/p/UqYwYb97.html <-- transcript thus far
[10:43am] timlinux: Loboalegre: so to continue
[10:44am] timlinux: the idea is that I tick off each item as I do them
[10:44am] timlinux: and then you come along behind me and double check my work
[10:44am] timlinux: e.g. looking for typos
[10:44am] timlinux: or any potential issues
[10:44am] Loboalegre: i.e, I go to main.cpp and make sure that the release name is really correct
[10:45am] timlinux: I think we should add another column called Q&A that you can put your check mark in
[10:45am] timlinux: Loboalegre: yes
[10:45am] Loboalegre: ye
[10:45am] timlinux: the idea is that we can start to add some polish to the releases
[10:46am] timlinux: by having things double checked
[10:46am] timlinux: and the press releases will get a similar going over now that we have a team and more than one pair of eyes checks everything over
[10:46am] Loboalegre: If the list grows, we might have to add more people,
[10:46am] timlinux: Loboalegre: yes thats no problem
[10:47am] Loboalegre: but lets do it once and we'll see afterwards
[10:47am] timlinux: Im hoping also to be able to divide some of the primary release work amongst us
[10:47am] aghisla: ok
[10:47am] timlinux: but we will play this by ear as we get used to working together
[10:48am] timlinux: another thing I will probably do is add yet another column with the intials of each person responsible for eachh checklist item
[10:48am] timlinux: we can then collaboratively go and self assign relevant parts
[10:48am] Loboalegre: or just use initials to mark
[10:48am] timlinux: yes
[10:49am] timlinux: could do
[10:49am] aghisla: how about marking pure developer tasks?
[10:49am] timlinux: though it might be good to have that column so its obvious who needs to do what
[10:49am] aghisla: this way also non-devs can easily find how to contribure
[10:49am] aghisla: contribute
[10:49am] timlinux: or we can add initials in the done column and then add a tick when its don
[10:49am] timlinux: done
[10:49am] timlinux: aghisla: yes very true
[10:50am] timlinux: in fact very little in the process requires developer skills though some things require write access to svn
[10:50am] timlinux: Loboalegre: ok so that all clear enough for now?
[10:50am] Loboalegre: ok
[10:50am] aghisla: ok, we can start splitting tasks by this criterion
[10:51am] aghisla: there are also some tasks that can be done apart from release
[10:51am] aghisla: the templates, for example
[10:51am] timlinux: I would just like to re-empahise that as we work through the http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/ReleaseChecklist0.9.2, if you need to change the structure / content of the checklist, please update the master template with the same change here: http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/ReleaseChecklistTemplate
[10:51am] DodgyDude: <http://ln-s.net/1gB3> (at wiki.qgis.org)
[10:51am] timlinux: aghisla: yes
[10:52am] timlinux: I see you started some work on this already
[10:52am] aghisla: oh just created the page and filled it
[10:52am] timlinux: you could probably put that kind of stuff together onto the current release checklist too
[10:52am] timlinux: so that everything relating to the release is in one place
[10:52am] aghisla: ok good
[10:53am] timlinux: one thing you will note if editing the master template
[10:53am] timlinux: is that the version number is always written as X.X.X
[10:53am] timlinux: this is so when we prepare a new release
[10:53am] timlinux: we start a new checklist for the release
[10:53am] aghisla: sure
[10:53am] timlinux: and then just search and replace X.X.X with the new release no
[10:54am] timlinux: ok so we have the process so far:
[10:54am] timlinux: 1 ) Tim goes and does initial changes to relevant code for start of release cycle
[10:54am] timlinux: 2) Loboalegre (and perhaps others) follows up with QA
[10:54am] maning: sorry to ask what number in the agenda are we in?
[10:54am] timlinux: 3) we hit feature freeze
[10:55am] timlinux: maning: Questions about team members roles in the release process - TS
[10:55am] timlinux: maning: did you manage to catch up the logs?
[10:55am] maning: ok
[10:55am] timlinux: 4) Loboalegre preparees the change list
[10:55am] maning: just reading through it
[10:55am] maning: and the agenda
[10:55am] timlinux: 5) maning rduif and aghisla (all of us really) edit this into a nice master press release
[10:56am] timlinux: 5) ctd that we have in a few formats
[10:56am] timlinux: this is because some sites only accept short notices
[10:56am] timlinux: others will accept long ones
[10:56am] timlinux: others have very fixed formats e.g. freshmeath qt-apps.org
[10:57am] timlinux: 6) translations go out
[10:57am] timlinux: 7) translations come back in
[10:57am] timlinux: (above referring to qgis app)
[10:57am] timlinux: release team translate the press releases to various langs
[10:57am] timlinux: 10) packages are built
[10:58am] timlinux: 11) release is declared
[10:58am] silfreed joined the chat room.
[10:58am] timlinux: 12) release team starts spamming the news about qgis release, checking off each place it was publicised on the release checklist
[10:59am] timlinux: 13) maning (and others) update web site and other qgis intrastructure with new versions etc
[10:59am] timlinux: the end
[10:59am] timlinux:
[10:59am] maning: maning can only do english
[10:59am] timlinux: maning: thats no problem
[11:00am] timlinux: updating the qgis.org, blog etc will be great and thats english only
[11:00am] Loboalegre: One of my tasks is the Spanish translation
[11:00am] Loboalegre: of the different "press releases"
[11:00am] aghisla: one of mines is Italian and maybe French
[11:00am] maning: I see german list in the mailing list can anybody take care of them
[11:00am] timlinux: otto will probably help there
[11:00am] maning: qgis.org, blog is OK with me
[11:01am] timlinux: one of the things we can also do is try to recruit more people to translate releases
[11:01am] timlinux: so our core release team focuses on writing the press release in its various forms and publicising the release
[11:01am] Loboalegre: Perhaps we should be more specific on which type of versions of the press release should be made: just a shorter one and a longer one?
[11:02am] timlinux: and then we build up a list of folks who can do additional langs
[11:02am] timlinux: Loboalegre: yes
[11:02am] timlinux: Loboalegre: in my experience even those needed to be adapted on a per site basis
[11:02am] timlinux: since each site has different requirements for submitting news
[11:02am] timlinux: e.g. some dont accept html
[11:02am] timlinux: some do but only a subset
[11:03am] timlinux: some dont let you put links in etc
[11:03am] timlinux: so we create the master release articles
[11:03am] timlinux: and then tweak them at submission time
[11:03am] timlinux: I dont think its needed to store the tweaked versions on the checklist since they will be one-offs
[11:04am] timlinux: we should probably start wrapping up this meeting
[11:04am] maning: What about write access to qgis.org?
[11:04am] nhv joined the chat room.
[11:04am] Loboalegre: I know I have to take care of submissions to webs and lists in Spanish, others are taking care of the rest, I assume.
[11:04am] timlinux: maning: I will do this for you and contact you offlist
[11:05am] timlinux: Loboalegre: yes thats the idea
[11:05am] maning: tim: ok
[11:05am] rduif: sorry guys, have to leave... don't hesitate to put my initials behind some tasks
[11:05am] timlinux: Loboalegre: just make a list of the sites you will be posting to and put your initials next to them
[11:05am] timlinux: rduif: ok many thanks
[11:05am] rduif: will read further in logs
[11:05am] timlinux: will do
[11:05am] timlinux: totsiens
[11:05am] rduif:
[11:05am] aghisla: rduif: totsiens too
[11:05am] timlinux: we can spread the eng submissions between us
[11:06am] timlinux: hopefully maning can take the lead on eng press releases
[11:06am] timlinux: on the checklist its probably good to make a note of the lang of the site after its url
[11:07am] maning: OK then, timeline? Can't see in the checklist
[11:07am] timlinux: ok shall we move on to the final points
[11:07am] timlinux: maning: right thats because we are starting the 0.9.2 release process from scratch and I wanted to do every step together with the team
[11:08am] timlinux: lets first put this agenda item aside quickly:
[11:08am] timlinux: ReleaseSchedule for 2008 leading up to QGIS 1.0 - TS
[11:08am] timlinux: http://wiki.qgis.org/qgiswiki/ReleaseChecklists
[11:08am] timlinux: if you look at that page you will see the tentative release schedule
[11:09am] timlinux: 1 April is probably unrealistic for 0.9.2 now
[11:09am] timlinux: so we should probably set it for mid april
[11:09am] timlinux: as you can see we are trying to plot a course for the 1.0 release
[11:09am] aghisla: mid april? we have only a month
[11:09am] timlinux: aghisla: yes
[11:09am] aghisla: is it enough?
[11:09am] timlinux: 0.9.2 is pretty much done
[11:10am] timlinux: because we delayed its release by doing 0.9.2rc1
[11:10am] timlinux: I will email the dev list to confirm this data
[11:10am] timlinux: date
[11:10am] timlinux: in general release cycles will run over 2 months
[11:10am] Loboalegre: No problem for mid april, let's try this time, we'll do our best
[11:10am] aghisla: let's work on it then!
[11:10am] timlinux: ok
[11:11am] Loboalegre: and re-schedule if we see that this is impossible
[11:11am] maning: Mid april OK!
[11:11am] timlinux: and the goal is to get 1.0 released in time for mid sept in time to make a splash at FOSS4G2008
[11:11am] timlinux: oks so last item is pretty much covered: Planning for release of 0.9.2 (see ReleaseChecklist0.9.2) - TS
[11:11am] Loboalegre: That's a pretty important deadline
[11:11am] aghisla: yap
[11:12am] Loboalegre: ...but much more challenging for devs than for us
[11:12am] timlinux: note that all the deadlines depend on volunteer work of coders etc
[11:12am] timlinux: so we need to be flexible for when they need more time
[11:12am] timlinux: but in my experience pressure of releases tends to motivate dev activity
[11:12am] timlinux:
[11:13am] timlinux: so we can be the nitrous oxide to the qgis project
[11:13am] aghisla:
[11:13am] timlinux: for the release of 0.9.2 I put up a new clean checklist this morning
[11:13am] timlinux: I will populate it with approriate dates today
[11:14am] aghisla: yes
[11:14am] timlinux: and send out to the dev list the link to the checklist
[11:14am] timlinux: then start working through the things that can be done already
[11:14am] timlinux: can you all subscribe to the checklist page?
[11:14am] timlinux: there is a link to do this near the top of the page
[11:14am] aghisla: in the timeline, the release team work starts one week before release, is it right?
[11:14am] timlinux: then you will get an email when its been updated
[11:14am] timlinux: aghisla: no
[11:15am] Loboalegre: I've already subscribed. When can I start with the changelog?
[11:15am] timlinux: Loboalegre: as soon as we hit feature freeze
[11:16am] timlinux: I should actually move that up to the section above I see
[11:16am] Loboalegre: we'll have the prospective date for feature freeze today?
[11:16am] timlinux: Loboalegre: yes
[11:16am] timlinux: it will be soon
[11:16am] timlinux: maybe 1 week
[11:16am] timlinux: aghisla: as soon as we are in feature freeze we can start preparing press materials
[11:17am] aghisla: timlinux: good
[11:17am] timlinux: since the application features should not change from that point
[11:17am] timlinux: this will usually be 3 weeks before release
[11:17am] timlinux: and the QA stuff can probably start from then too
[11:17am] Loboalegre: is there any previous log (the raw output of the svn command) that I could get, just to get trained?
[11:18am] timlinux: Loboalegre: you mean ones I created for previous releases?
[11:18am] timlinux: I dont keep those
[11:18am] timlinux: you can just regenerate them
[11:18am] Loboalegre: yes. I would look at what you got and what you created
[11:18am] timlinux: Loboalegre: I would suggest to start by following the step by step install notes
[11:18am] timlinux: as we discussed at teh start of this meeting
[11:19am] timlinux: that will give you a local copy of QGIS svn checkout
[11:19am] timlinux: then you can run the svn commands on that
[11:19am] Loboalegre: ok. I'll do. May I bother you if I have problems?
[11:19am] timlinux: I will put into the checklist the revision number of the last release
[11:19am] timlinux: Loboalegre: please do!
[11:19am] timlinux: please do it via the mailing list so the knowledge can be shared
[11:20am] timlinux: I welcome any questions from anyone
[11:20am] timlinux: I know the first time round there will be some confusion as we work out how to do everything as a team instead of a 1 man band
[11:20am] timlinux: but I am sooooo pleased to have you all helping me!
[11:21am] aghisla:
[11:21am] maning: were do we place draft press release?
[11:21am] timlinux: on the 0.9.2 checklist page is best I think
[11:21am] timlinux: you will see some templates at teh bottom
[11:21am] maning: OK
[11:21am] timlinux: the wiki also allows you to attach images
[11:21am] timlinux: there are draft press releases I created from previous releases
[11:22am] timlinux: but please feel free to completely change them as needed
[11:22am] timlinux: and also feel free to circulate on the list to discuss
[11:22am] timlinux: its probably best to write them as plain text first
[11:22am] timlinux: until we have got them into the state we want
[11:22am] timlinux: and then to do html markup etc
[11:23am] timlinux: ok folks I need to bring this meeting to a close (work wants me to ...work ... again)
[11:23am] maning: OK, we'll follow-up questions in the list.
[11:23am] timlinux: thank you once again for all coming to the meeting, we can arrange further meetings as needed via the list
[11:24am] timlinux: maning: good
[11:24am] Loboalegre: ok, nice talking to you all and nice having the opportunity to participate!
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[11:25am] silfreed left the chat room. ("Konversation terminated!")
[11:25am] maning: Yes me too. My first involvement with FOSS GIS development. But been teaching qgis since seamus. http://epmgis.wikispaces.com
[11:25am] FrankW left the chat room. ("Ex-Chat")
[11:26am] aghisla: me too, even if new of qgis and still have much to learn
[11:28am] Loboalegre: bye!
[11:28am] PeteE left the chat room.
[11:28am] aghisla: bye!
[11:28am] maning: bye!
[11:30am] timlinux: bye all
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