I wonder if a "new feature", as in new functionality, would trigger
the need for a release review and, thus, couldn't be done in a
service release. yes, no, maybe?
On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 11:22 AM, David M Williams
<david_williams@xxxxxxxxxx <mailto:david_williams@xxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Daniel, I've replied on "cross-project" list. Hope you don't
mind .... but, I do so since
1) others probably have the same questions and they would like to
know the answers too, and
2) others probably have much better answers than I do! :)
> 1) Is it ok to release new features on a Service Release? Or
should they go just on the next major version?
I'm assuming you mean literally a new feature, in the sense of an
installable feature that has its own feature.xml. But, even if
you mean merely new function, in an existing feature.xml, the
answer is pretty much the same.
It is sort of discouraged, just because
a) its can be tricky to do, and have everything "update"
correctly (but it is possible),
b) depending on what it is, it can kind of surprise adopters,
maybe effect additions they have added themselves, or perhaps
effect tutorials, or translations they have done.
But, first and foremost, it depends on what your project (and
your adopters need). If you (or your adopters) need it, it can
and should happen. You'd want to review with your project leads,
mentors, and PMC and make sure all agree its important and
reasonable, and its being added in the best possible way ... such
as, is it a new feature that gets added automatically ... is it a
feature that adopters/users can install "optionally"? Also, in
some cases maybe it should just to in your own projects software
repository, but not complicate the common repository, but in
other cases, maybe it is critical to add to the common
repository. After PMC discussions, you'd probably want to well
notify the community on these new plans ... both your own, on
your own specific newsgroups and mailing lists, but also the
cross-project list just so others know what's changing in common
repo, and can offer advice, or concerns, if there is any concerns
(and probably would not be concerns, for 99% of the cases).
> 2) Is there a standard on source code policies (branching
versioning, etc) for Eclipse projects?
Definitely not a standard, per se (well, I'm assuming you are not
talking about the versioning of bundles, which is standard, and
documented in http://wiki.eclipse.org/Version_Numbering).
But most projects do have their own project-wide practices, and
some projects have tried to document how they tag code once
released, and how and when they branch map files and code. Such
as WTP has the following document, but I know its kind of sloppy
(which I can say, because I wrote it, and recently fixed some
extremely out of date sections, but its been "hack edited" so
many times, its ended up kind of sloppy and maybe incomplete),
http://wiki.eclipse.org/WTP_How_to:_Branching_Policy_and_Practices
Perhaps other projects have their own documents on how and when
to tag and branch source code and could contribute them to this
discussion?
Thanks ... and keep the questions coming ... we all learn in Open
Development, when people ask questions -- either directly, or
even for us answering, provides a good opportunity to stop and
think "how do we do that and why do we do it that way?"
From: Daniel Pastore <kpqb38@xxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:kpqb38@xxxxxxxxxxxx>>
To: David M Williams/Raleigh/IBM@IBMUS
Cc: Marcel Gorri <wmg040@xxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:wmg040@xxxxxxxxxxxx>>
Date: 06/30/2010 09:12 AM
Subject: Can you help us with some questions?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi David,
we would like to ask you (as a great expert on the Eclipse way of
doing things) two questions we have:
1) Is it ok to release new features on a Service Release? Or
should they go just on the next major version?
2) Is there a standard on source code policies (branching,
versioning, etc) for Eclipse projects?
--
Thanks a lot for your patience :)
Daniel Pastore
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