[development] CVS HEAD, code freeze, zeitgeist

[Gerhard Killesreiter]

Derek Wright wrote:
> 
> On Aug 19, 2006, at 5:08 AM, Bèr Kessels wrote:
> 
>> Golden stars are -indeed- not going to magically bring me coding ninjas.
> 
> one possible solution to my original concern about core running too fast 
> for contrib to keep up was the proposal for a longer *freeze* period.  i 
> see a few pros to this approach:
> 
> 1) more time for contrib to catch up. ;)

There seems to be an assumption that people would update modules given 
enough time. IMHO (and if I am allowed to take myself as a reference) 
that's not true. I update my modules when /I/ need them to be be updated 
or if somebody else sends a patch (which typically means that the patch 
sender needed that module). Also, this usually happens _after_ the 
release of the new Drupal version because before core is released I have 
no reason to update the modules as most of my clients would not want me 
to install beta versions.

On occassion I develop a new site with the upcoming release in mind and 
then I might update modules early.

I don't think that this approach is wrong or has to change, btw.

Actually, I am angry about myself that I accepted some patches to 
event.module to keep it cvs compatible. This delays the back-merging of 
fixes into the stable branch since I need to remove these changes from 
the diff.

> 2) more time to work on hardening, testing, bug fixing for core itself
> 3) more time to work on documentation
> 4) more time to work on usability enhancements (so long as they're not 
> major and don't change the API)
> 
> the downside, of course, is that it would delay the next furious round 
> of changes.  however, that might just be a good thing. ;)  2 major 
> releases a year instead of 3 isn't anything to be ashamed of.

I don't see doing us more than 2 releases a year anyway. The catch-up 
period for 4.7 was long enough and still many module weren't updated 
before the release. This is just how it works and nothing will change this.

Cheers,
	Gerhard