[News.eclipse.technology.packaging] Policies for EPP

["Ian Skerrett" <ian.skerrett@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I thought it might be useful for the EPP project to have a set of policies 
that we use to determine that content of the packages.   The goal is that we 
all agree to an approach for making decisions on the package content.   This 
will hopefully make the project more open and transparent in the decision 
making process.

Here is a draft set of policies that I think might make sense.   Thoughts?


  1.. The goal of the EPP packages is to improve the initial out-of-box 
experience for an Eclipse user.
  2.. EPP intends to keep the number of packages the project maintains to a 
very small number.  The initial 4 packages were defined in the original 
project proposal and we don't intend to add additional packages unless we 
receive strong feedback from the community.
  3.. We want to keep the size of the existing packages as small as 
possible.  The existing packages are defined based on the profiles of a 
target user.   The philosophy is to provide a solution that addresses the 
basic needs of the majority of the target user population.   We are not 
trying to solve everyone's requirements.
  4.. EPP will update the content of each package to coincide with the 
annual release train.   We will not change the contents of the packages 
during the year.  During the Fall and Spring maintenance release we will 
only update the packages with the new releases from the existing projects.
  5.. The package content update will be discussed in an open and 
transparent way on the EPP newsgroups.  Everyone in the Eclipse community is 
welcomed to provide feedback.  The EPP committers will make the final 
decision on the package content.
  6.. A project that is included in an EPP package must have the following: 
1) must be part of the annual release train, 2) be at least a 1.0 release, 
3) must have a stable and reliable build and 4) should have provide a 
minimal set of features so the EPP package can remain small.
  7.. EPP will be creating frameworks to allow others to create other 
packages.   The Eclipse community is encouraged to take advantage of these 
frameworks to create their own package for different user profiles.