[Laszlo-dev] Simplifying our 'point release' process

[Sarah Allen]

I don't understand why the release process and the numbering scheme  
are coupled. I think certain people will expect release notes or  
whatever no matter what the build is called. I would focus in process  
(or your desire for a lack thereof) rather than than the number scheme.

My $.02

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 23, 2009, at 9:42 AM, Matt Kolenda <mkolenda at laszlosystems.com>  
wrote:

> Tucker
>
> May I suggest that the Release ID begin at 1 instead of 0.  People  
> tend to refer to releases as ordinal numbers starting at 1.
>
> Matt
>
> Matt Kolenda
> Laszlo Systems
> mobile: 415.505.5393
> email: mkolenda at laszlosystems.com
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 8:58 AM , P T Withington wrote:
>
>> I'd like to simplify our process for creating (what we call) 'point  
>> release's, releases where we are incrementing the 3rd component of  
>> the release ID, which typically only include a very small number of  
>> targeted fixes in response to customer or maintenance contracts.  
>> Since these point releases are typically only targeted to a single  
>> customer, I don't feel we should have to go through the full  
>> [Release Process](http://wiki.openlaszlo.org/Release_Process).
>>
>> What I'd like to propose is that we separate out the concept of a  
>> "version" and a "release".  Taking the current 4.6.2 branch as an  
>> example, I propose that it would be known as Version 4.6, Release  
>> 2. I propose that we would implement this new procedure in trunk  
>> and put it into effect in Version 4.7.  Basically, rather than  
>> build.properties having version.id and release.id which are  
>> redundant, we would have version.id be the first two components of  
>> the current version (e.g., 4.7) and release.id would be 0, and  
>> incremented for each point release (should there be any) out of  
>> that branch.
>>
>> A goal of this simplification is to reduce the overhead of a point  
>> release, so that there is no need to update release notes or web  
>> content to create the point release.  The point release can simply  
>> replace the previous point release on the download server.
>>
>> The major work that would be needed to do this:
>>
>> . Adjust the build system to know the difference between version  
>> and release, using the appropriate combination in each place.  In  
>> particular, this should remove the requirement that the nightly- 
>> build script has to be updated for each point release, and remove  
>> the point designation from the download paths and images (so the  
>> download page will not need to be updated).
>>
>> . Adjust any parameterized documentation to know the difference  
>> between @VERSIONID@ and @RELEASEID@, using the appropriate  
>> combination in each place.  This should remove the need to update  
>> the release notes for point releases.
>>
>> . Adjust the LFC and debugger to know the difference between  
>> version and release, using the appropriate combination in each  
>> place.  This should simply be a reorganization of the canvas  
>> attributes and the way the debugger prints version and release info  
>> for bug reports, etc.