> -----Original Message----- > From: Chip Childers [mailto:chip.child...@sungard.com] > > [Snip] > > So we're < 3 days away from the proposed release candidate being cut.
No we're not. We're 3 days away from the proposed opening of the release branch, when we would stop developing features, and switching into bug fix mode. There's still another week between then and cutting the first release candidate. We have until the end of August to work on the test-bugfix-rebuild cycle, and I'm sure that we can take build / licensing changes right up to the last moment. Turning off and on features shouldn't have subtle effects -- it's either all going to break or not -- so I'm much less concerned about those kinds of changes compared with changes in the core of the code where things can go subtly wrong and we need much more time for testing. Now, whether we're going to make the feature-complete deadline is a good question. It looks like the VPC and autoscale branches aren't going to land before Friday, and Jamshid (Caringo)'s patch needs a push over the line too. So we may still be too close to the wire, assuming that we want these features in 4.0 given that the code is right in front of us already. I personally don't think that the binary-licensing issues are a blocker for release. The official release is a source code release. Anything that we do in terms of binaries is just for convenience for people. Now, I would definitely be unhappy if we can't ship binaries that are useful, but from a legal point of view I don't think that it's an issue. If the Foundation denies our request to distribute them, then users will have to do without, but we can still ship the code. It would mean the installation instructions get longer and more complicated, but other than that things should still work. It's possible that Citrix (or anyone else) could host binaries compiled from official Apache source. That would be disappointing, but it might help us bridge the gap without completely inconveniencing our users. I would definitely like to come to a conclusion on the build process. I'll comment on that thread separately right after this email. Regarding docs, yes we need to get that in order. David and Joe and I have been looking at that in the last couple of days. Wido's just opened a thread on that topic too, so we will weigh in there. Cheers, Ewan.
