[news.eclipse.technology.kepler] Kepler build management

[Scott Lewis <slewis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Folks,

This begs the question:  what exactly should we consider in scope for 
work on Kepler 'build management'?

I (Scott) have been assuming that for the Europa simultaneous release 
that Kepler's build management focus would/should be on 'whatever the 
Europa projects require to produce Europa-deployable artifacts'.

This is perhaps over-pragmatic...it is focused primarily on making it 
feasible and manageable to have existing EF large and small projects 
participate in Europa without 'breaking their backs' manually doing 
release engineering work.

So without going too far into it, it seems to me that the initial parts 
of Kepler build management would have to be headless:

1) build of plugins/bundles
2) build of features
3) build of update sites (since Europa projects deploy as update sites)

With all of the requisite dependency and version handling for allowing 
these artifacts to be produced...along with communication of 
error/exceptional conditions to/among relevant people (e.g. 
notifications, etc) so that problems can be responded to easily, 
quickly, by the right people.

Of course, there are lots of other things that could be (and probably 
eventually should be) considered in scope for Kepler build management;

4) Automated testing
5) Production of reports (automated tests and build itself)
6) Creation/modification of user and developer documentation
7) Supporting/enhancing the workflow among team members to support 
greater efficiency
8) ...

But I've been assuming that Kepler would be more successful to

a) take a sequenced approach to dealing with these things (and many 
others not listed here)
b) get Kepler build management doing the 'top 3' above
c) get some Europa participating projects successfully using Kepler 
technologies immediately and consistently
d) use experience from a-c to expand Kepler automation in 
necessary/appropriate ways

So I put the question out to all on this newsgroup for discussion:

What should be considered in scope for Kepler build management in the 
short term (next 6 months)?  Does tying it to Europa build needs work 
for people?  Or are there other things more appropriately in build 
management that should be addressed other than build support for 
participating Europa projects?

Thanks,

Scott