Minutes of Dakar Release Schedule Meeting, 17 Dec 2005

Logistics and Participants

• Date: Saturday, 17 Dec 2005 18:00 GMT
• IRC Channel: #twiki_dakar
• Participants (IRC nick): AntonioTerceiro (terceiro), ArthurClemens (ArthurClemens), CrawfordCurrie (CDot), KennethLavrsen (Lavr), LynnwoodBrown (LynnwoodBrown), MichaelDaum (MichaelDaum), PeterThoeny (PeterThoeny), SvenDowideit (SvenDowideit)

Summary

• Lynnwood initiated the first Dakar release schedule meeting for 17 Dec 2005 - 18:00 GMT
• Release schedule, top features for press release and major points have been discussed
• Concern over rate of new bugs still arriving
  • Lavr noted that this is principally affected WysiwygPlugin
• Overall consensus was to adhere to the code freeze

Release Schedule

• Discussions on when to release
• Criteria:
  • All major issues resolved
  • Doc work done
  • Note: as previously discussed outside this meeting, this should mean "No Requirement or Urgent in Bugs web". If something is not in Bugs web, it is not a problem and cannot hold up the release. This is critical for effective communication around the team. CDot
• Sven pushed for an ASAP release in Dec 2005 to avoid losing OSS folks
• Crawford pushed for a Dev 2005 release to avoid a perceived 2-year gap in the release sequence (2004-2006), and to take advantage of the free time people have around XMas so they can test-run the new release. CDot
• Peter prefers a 01 Jan 2006 release for marketing reasons (people have little attention span if we release around Christmas)
  • Wrong! Many sad geeks work solidly through the XMas holidays, usually on "interesting projects" like TWiki. CDot
• Kenneth would not mind a 01 Feb 2006 release if this brings a stable WYSIWYG Editor in the release
• No consensus reached

Press Release

• We need a top 5 to top 10 feature list to include in the press release
• Peter has a good testimonial ready for press release from Novell

Point 1: Dakar Doc Update

• Peter said that Dakar docs are not up to the standard of previous releases (not up to TWikiDocsStyleGuide, formatting issues, new doc not in intuitive place, etc)
• Peter has 49 topics left to fix:
  • TWiki.org merge
  • Formatting fixes
  • Proof reading & editing
• Peter estimates 40 more hours of work
• Lynnwood offered to help
• Tech Writer help is needed, but finding this person does not hold up the release

Point 2: Ship WYSIWYG Editor With Dakar

• Peter proposes to ship the WysiwygPlugin with Dakar because this is a CompetitiveNecessity, but it needs to be labelled as Alpha
• Crawford said that Plugin will be ready in mid January
• Crawford only has two working days available between now a 3 Jan.
  • Though I am quite happy if other people would like to fix the bugs CDot
• Consensus reached to ship the Plugin, label it as Alpha, and disable the Plugin by default

Point 3: ClassicSkin Issues

• Bugs:Item1190 - ClassicSkin missing from latest Beta release of today
  • Minor slip, already fixed CDot
• New screenshots needed
• Issue with bottom bar
• No login/logout
• I18N is missing - deferred
• Related: PlainSkin needs better doc

Point 4: Translations

• French translation is missing - not a show stopper
• Almost all translations are incomplete; AntonioTerceiro will:
  • make an overall revision of translatable strings in templates; and "decrete" a string freeze.
  • flag all past translators by e-mail asking them to complete their translations. -- AT

Point 5: Rest Interface

• Sven plans to make the rest interface ready with security issue plugged
  • Commited -- Sven

Point 6: Warning for Deprecated API Calls

• Peter suggests to review Bugs:Item1025, some good alternatives have been pointed out to avoid the flood of warning messages in the logs
  • Who will perform this review? Who will decide? Who will put the work in? It is too late in the process to "review" things; decisions and action are required. CDot Resolved, Done KJL

Point 7: Improve CSS Handling in PatternSkin

• ModernizePatternSkin and Bugs:Item959
• Simple change to improve CSS handling -- don't know what this is -- ArthurClemens - 18 Dec 2005
• Change can be described in cookbook this already has been described -- ArthurClemens - 18 Dec 2005
• Consensus was not to risk introducing new bugs (i.e. will not be done)

Action Items

• Peter
  • Create Codev topic to list top features to list in press release
    • DONE - See DakarRelease
  • Upgrade twiki.org to Dakar by year end
  • Give feedback on ModernizePatternSkin, so a final header can be created
    • DONE - See ModernizePatternSkin
• Peter, Lynnwood
  • Update the last 49 documentation topics
• Arthur
  • Design final header based on feedback on ModernizePatternSkin
  • Update classic skin to include a login and logout button
• Antonio
  • go for a final check on templates for misused i18n constucts, after what we'll be on string freeze (nobody touches strings in templates)
  • flag translators by e-mail so they can complete their translations
• All
  • Make a top 10 list of Dakar features in DakarRelease - please work on DakarRelease list
  • Help find tech writer
  • Attract translators
  • Think about ways to get attention of writers and coders

IRC Log

• IrcLogDakarReleaseMeeting2005x12x17.html: IRC log of Dakar Release Meeting 2005/12/17

Back to: DakarRelease

-- PeterThoeny - 17 Dec 2005

Discussions

Please help in improving the minutes, I am sure I missed some important things. And also in the action items of course

-- PeterThoeny - 17 Dec 2005

I was reading through the log posted here (the text file) and parts did not make sense so I compared the copy of the log I made and found that, in fact, parts were missing for some reason. So I've attached a new version of the log that is more complete and formatted for easier reading.

-- LynnwoodBrown - 18 Dec 2005

Improve CSS Handling in PatternSkin: Consensus was not to risk introducing new bugs (i.e. will not be done)

Michael and I were arguing: this will not not introduce new bugs as the css already exists and is documented here.

-- ArthurClemens - 18 Dec 2005

If you're going to have one of these meetings again could you email the CoreTeam. I'd have liked to have sat in on it, even if I am a bit out of the loop and would have lurked most of the time.

-- SamHasler - 23 Dec 2005

OK, will do. Sorry for the omission.

-- PeterThoeny - 23 Dec 2005

I think that the the twiki-dev mailing list is (or should be) the best place for advertising future meetings.

-- AntonioTerceiro - 23 Dec 2005

I'll take the rap for not getting the word out to everyone who should have been notified of this meeting. I did it on short notice and was thinking mostly of folks who've recently been involved with Dakar release work. Clearly an oversight on my part! My apologies to all concerned and I will send out future announcements on twiki-dev . I'm hoping we can make these kinds of group-sessions a regular part of TWiki development.

-- LynnwoodBrown - 23 Dec 2005