[development] Drupal 6 code freeze

[Dries Buytaert]

Hello world,

as of today, the Drupal 6 code is frozen.  This means that we first  
shift focus towards usability improvements and performance  
improvements and that we are extremely strict about breaking APIs.   
We'll only accept patches that break APIs unless required to fix  
critical issues.

The first 2-3 weeks, patches that improve either usability or  
performance might still be considered assuming they don't break any  
APIs.  However, we're going to be extremely strict about patches that  
attempt to add new features for usability's sake.

After the first couple of weeks, we'll enter the second stage of the  
code freeze during which only bug fixes are accepted.  Finally, when  
all critical bugs are fixed, we'll release Drupal 6.

In addition to that, I'd like to grant six extensions/exceptions.   
These extensions buy 6 issues another *two* weeks to get committed to  
Drupal core.  Two weeks isn't a lot of time so chances are that these  
won't make it.  However, I'm confident that some patches will.

  1. We need the menu module fixes to go in, and these might alter  
the APIs.

  2. We need the update module to go in and it's 95% ready. It would  
be a shame to hold it back.

  3. We want the file API to go in and it's 95% ready.  It would be a  
shame to hold it back.

  4. I'm going to grant an extra 2 weeks for the book module patch.  
I'm not promising that I will go in, but I'd like to see us carefully  
analyze it some more and maybe strip or massage it a little.  It is  
an important patch for both Drupal's future and the Drupal.org  
documentation team, so let's focus on making them succeed.

  5. I'd like to see us split SQL read and writes as drupal.org would  
benefit from this a lot.  (Important performance improvement that is  
likely to break APIs.)

  6. I'd like to see us merge the node, node_comment_statistics and  
node_counter tables. (Important performance improvement that is  
likely to break APIs.)

Other than that, we're going to spend a lot of time fixing bugs and  
banging CPU cycles out of Drupal!  It looks like this might be  
another amazing release for us, especially if we can make Drupal 6  
easier to use and snappier than Drupal 5.  Please adjust your  
mindsets to this new focus!

I'd like to solicit some feedback surrounding this, and then finally  
announce the Drupal 6 code freeze on the drupal.org main page first  
thing tomorrow morning.

Thanks for all the hard work,

PS: I realize it is tempting to beg for more extensions, but please  
think twice before you do.  I've carefully compiled this list, and by  
asking for more extensions, you jeopardize the success of the six  
patches.  I want to see us take care of these 6 patches more than  
anything else.

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