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RE: [cross-project-issues-dev] Re-spin process / DSDP-TM Re-spin request


It becomes a bit of a self-fulfilling prophesy. If consumers decide that the June release is a beta, then they may wait even later before consuming it, and those integration failures are not discovered until later still. We have plenty of betas in Eclipse - continuously in fact. Most projects have builds every day, integration builds every week, and stable builds every 6-8 weeks. Europa as a whole also had betas (milestones) every six weeks in the months leading up to the release. Maybe the whole release cycle moves too fast to leave time for thorough integration testing, but I'm sure there would be plenty of unhappy people if we released less often. Such is life in software: our users want a stable product with all the desired features, and they want it yesterday ;)

 I agree with the general point though: there is certainly room for improvement in cross-project intregration testing.  Having milestone builds of EPP packages to go with the update site milestones would be a great start.



Doug Schaefer <DSchaefer@xxxxxxx>
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07/10/2007 03:51 PM

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RE: [cross-project-issues-dev] Re-spin process / DSDP-TM Re-spin         request





I’m not sure if there is a pattern. I’ve seen few companies big or small leaping on Europa to release a product before Sept. But then maybe it’s our past experience with the CDT driving that:
 
    http://cdtdoug.blogspot.com/2007/06/cdt-4-what-difference-community-makes.html
 
And maybe there are companies that are more willing to take the risk or are taking safer plug-ins.
 
But I hope we can agree that integration testing is an area that we are sorely missing and that a Beta program would help focus the community on that activity.
 
Doug Schaefer, QNX Software Systems
Eclipse CDT Project Lead,
http://cdtdoug.blogspot.com



From: cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Scott Lewis
Sent:
Tuesday, July 10, 2007 3:38 PM
To:
Cross project issues
Subject:
Re: [cross-project-issues-dev] Re-spin process / DSDP-TM Re-spin request

 
While I don't disagree with Doug's little secret, I would say it is predicated on large company/enterprise adoption patterns...and not as obviously true for small company and/or ISV patterns of adoption.

Scott


Doug Schaefer wrote:

The thing is, if you go for more than three, how do you get agreement on how
many and how often. The soonest we can get a new CDT back up to product
quality with all the fixes going in at the moment is September. If you
decide to go August and November, you'll miss me (of course assuming you
want me...)
 
Now for those new to Eclipse project management, I'll let you in on a
secret, and keep it close to your vest, but then you may have heard it
already ;). Very few products take up the end-of-June release because of the
concerns over the lack of integration/system testing. Most have their eyes
on the Fall maintenance release since it is by then that the bits get enough
eyes on them and the major bugs get worked out.
 
If we aren't going to get enough test pressure from the community before the
end of June, we need to set our expectations accordingly. And in some ways,
I'd wouldn't mind seeing this more formalized, like calling the June release
Europa Beta and the Fall release Europa. Hmm, the more I think about it, the
more I like the idea of having a real Beta program. It would be a great way
to focus the community on doing the necessary testing while giving them
early access with the appropriate expectations...
 
Doug Schaefer, QNX Software Systems
Eclipse CDT Project Lead, http://cdtdoug.blogspot.com
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:cross-project-
issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Markus Knauer
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 2:13 PM
To: Cross project issues
Subject: Re: [cross-project-issues-dev] Re-spin process / DSDP-TM Re-spin
request
 
Hi *,
 
first of all: I am a bit astonished and anxious about the direction of
this
discussion. All that leaves behind the impression that many projects were
not
yet ready for a release and that there is a lack of integration/system
testing at Eclipse???
 
As far as EPP is concerned, I think John's recommendations are the best
and I
would go for that. I don't want to touch the June 29th release, but I
support
the idea of starting soon with new package builds for the 'Europa Fall
Update'. Hopefully this leads to more and better package testing and
should
improve the overall quality of the packages.
 
Maybe we should discuss to have more than the planned 3 EPP updates every
year
(Europa, Europa Fall, Europa Spring); as you can see on the EPP webpages
there is currently no plan for 'past-Europa' - I intended to start now
with
the planning based on our experience from the Europa Release. But in any
case 'more than 3 EPP releases every year' doesn't mean weekly or even
daily
EPP builds for end users.
 
[ EPP and the current re-spin requests: DSDP is not yet included in the
packages, Datatools might be an issue in the JEE package. ]
 
Markus
 
On Monday 09 July 2007 17:12, John Arthorne wrote:
   
Why are those criteria not met by releasing your fixes into a "Europa
     
Fall
   
Update" update site/stream? There would still be a place for the
     
community
   
and products to obtain the latest and greatest from each of the Europa
projects, without touching the official June 29th release. I really
     
think
   
these Europa respins directly contradict the claim that we are reliable
and that we ship on time.
 
I understand the pain of discovering major bugs after a release date -
     
we
   
all care deeply about releasing quality code. Sadly there is *always*
     
one
   
more bug that we want to fix, and without fixing a release date there
would be no end to the release cycle. There have already been about 30
     
bug
   
fixes in the Eclipse top level project 3.3.1 stream, including one
critical and three major bugs. Does this mean we should also release
     
these
   
into the respin? No, because just as there is always one more bug to
     
fix,
   
there is also always the next release. As long as there is some way to
make the fixes available to those who absolutely need it, there is no
     
need
   
to slip the entire release.
 
I think this debate about respins is only happening because we don't yet
have the Europa fall update site set up yet.  In the absence of this,
Europa respins are the only way to get our critical fixes out there. I
suggest we create a Europa fall update site as soon as possible so we
     
can
   
put the Europa June 29th release behind us.
 
John
 
 
 
 
"Oberhuber, Martin" <Martin.Oberhuber@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx
07/09/2007 09:42 AM
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Subject
[cross-project-issues-dev] Re-spin process / DSDP-TM Re-spin request
 
 
 
 
 
 
Hi all,
 
Regarding the re-spin process, I think we should recall what's the
objective and value proposition of Europa. I found the best definition
in the recent Planning Council Meeting Notes [1] (applied to Ganymede in
that context):
 
     "A reliable release stream for commercial product planning."
 
Europa is about showing that commercial products can rely on Eclipse,
that we ship quality and we ship it in time, and that the various
projects can be used together because they are released simultaneously.
In addition to that prime objective, I think there is a second value
proposition:
 
     "Make it simple to get an initial install of (n) dependent
projects."
 
This second value is more for the Open Source user community than the
commercial one, and it's partly addressed by the EPP packages but not
all projects are in EPP so some of them need the Europa update site.
 
Keeping these two goals in mind, I agree that the main Europa Stream
should be "closed" because otherwise it would not be reliable. However,
we know that in every released product there can be emergencies, patches
etc. -- but typically these are kept to the absolute minimum, they are
reproducable and versioned.
 
I consider the discussion about Europa re-spins like an extension of the
written Ramp Down Policies that were a requirement for all projects.
Extending what most projects wrote down, I think a re-spin of Europa
would require "Change Review by more than one PMC for appropriateness
and risk" before a patch can be released.
 
Based on these thoughts, I think the requirements for an Europa re-spin
should be
 
   1. Reproducable: Europa on Day X must also be creatable by getting
      Europa Jun.29 plus some documented project patches via the project
      update sites or download sites.
 
   2. Documented: Europa on Day X must exactly document each and every
      change compared to Europa Jun.29 -- by listing Bugzilla's fixed
      and listing project patches integrated (on the download page).
 
   3. Quality: Europa on Day X must not introduce any new bugs compared
      to Europa Jun.29 -- every patch applied must be reviewed and
tested
      for appropriateness and risk (by more than one PMC, I'd think,
      extending the current written Ramp-down policies).
 
All that being said, I have a concrete request for a re-spin: DSDP-TM
discovered two critical bugs (192741 and 194204), which could lead to
loss of data, just a little too late in the testing. These bugs were
immediately announced in the release notes, but it took until after 2.0
before a fix was available. We considered it our responsibility to
provide a patch release (TM 2.0.0.1), which was delivered on our project
update site as well as our download site this Friday [2]. The patch
release was thoroughly tested; the fixes are documented on bugzilla,
release notes, our Wiki as well as the patch build notes.
 
Referring to what Dave said, I tested and verified that "Check For
Updates" does work properly although only the Qualifier was changed in
the updated features and plugins (TM 2.0.0.1 is patch-only branch and
different than TM 2.0.1 which we'll be working on for the Fall
Maintenance Release).
 
Why do I think this patch release should go into an Europa re-spin? -
Because every day, people are getting fresh bits from Europa and perhaps
not all of them "Check for Updates" after downloading. I'd like to keep
them from losing data and thus push the patch into Europa, just like I
changed all the download links on our home page [3]. At any rate,
features-dsdp-tm.xml has been updated so the next Europa re-spin should
pick up the changes.
 
[1] http://www.eclipse.org/org/councils/20070620PCMinutes.php
[2]
http://tmober.blogspot.com/2007/07/dsdp-tm-rse-2001-critical-patch-relea
se.html
[3] http://www.eclipse.org/dsdp/tm/
 
Thanks,
--
Martin Oberhuber
Wind River Systems, Inc.
Target Management Project Lead, DSDP PMC Member
http://www.eclipse.org/dsdp/tm
     
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