[development] CVS HEAD, code freeze, zeitgeist

[Dries Buytaert]

Hello world,

I wanted to point out that the code freeze starts less than two weeks  
from now.

Since Drupal 4.7 was released, we added a fair number of features to  
the development version of Drupal.  Enough features to justify making  
a release.  It will be a very exciting release, even, with features  
like the installer, the foundation for custom content types and  
various usability improvements including improved administration  
pages!  Thanks to the great work of many people, we hit quite a few  
milestones.  :)

Before we move on to discuss whether this release should be called  
4.8 or 5.0 (let's save that discussion for _after_ the code freeze  
when all the work is complete!), I wanted to ask if everybody is  
still happy with the date of the code freeze, and the fact that we're  
about to transition to a new branch.  We're about to freeze core  
development for several months as we work out the new bugs we've  
introduced.  In addition, module authors will have to upgrade their  
modules to be compatible with CVS HEAD, and translators will need to  
update their translations.

I sense that most people are ready for all this, but that at least a  
number of people are still catching up with the Drupal 4.7 madness.   
Just look at the translation status page (http://drupal.org/ 
translation-status), for example.  Certainly, the translators are  
behind a little.  Given more time, they would likely still be behind.

Note that I'm not suggesting that we postpone the code freeze.   
Rather, I figured it wouldn't hurt to share our thoughts about the  
code freeze and all the work we have done so far.   I know this could  
be a long discussion with a lot of different opinions but -- believe  
it or not -- ultimately conversations like these add value (as long  
we're careful enough to stay on topic).   If anything, such  
discussions help us understand each other's goals and problems, and  
help us to collectively figure out the current Drupal zeitgeist.

--
Dries Buytaert  ::  http://www.buytaert.net/