Re: [rt-pmc] Juno Retrospective

[Gunnar Wagenknecht <gunnar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Am 23.08.2012 17:34, schrieb Mike Milinkovich:
> I didn't intend this retrospective conversation to be about Jetty's
> decision. I would like to understand (or more accurately make sure that the
> RT community understands) why the release train concept is unattractive to
> the RT community, and if there is anything which can be done about it.
> Ideally, I would love to see some thinking outside the box. 

There are a few things I mentioned in the discussion. Maybe I should
highlight them again and try to come up with some more.

Disclaimer: It's hard for me to argue against the train. I'm a fan of
the train and will do anything to continue participation.

* Release Frequency

There are a couple of RT projects which release more frequently then the
annual train. Although there is value to participate in the train, some
aspects of the train don't add value.

* Deliverables

Most RT projects do not deliver plug-ins for the IDE. It's way easier to
download a ZIP file that can be extracted and run then to download the
p2 director and try to install stuff manually using a bunch of command
line arguments.

(Note, at least RAP also provides tooling. I think the story is
different here. Those guys do a great job participating in the train
anyway.)

* Technical Conflicts

Assuming the common base is Equinox, not every RT project can be
provisioned easily. Some components just aren't meant to be run
together. It's like with SWT & RAP.

* Diversity

Technical issues aside, there are also a few other aspects which will
make it hard to align RT projects. There is a clear story for the IDE.
The Platform is set and everybody else builds on top of that Platform
using not only the OSGi programming model but also a whole bunch of rich
concepts and APIs. Those aren't available in RT. There is just OSGi and
everybody else built their own concepts over time. It's hard to re-align
major projects just for the sake of it.

-Gunnar

-- 
Gunnar Wagenknecht
gunnar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://wagenknecht.org/