[bt-devel] The next and upcoming releases

[Eeli Kaikkonen]

Martin asked me about the string freeze. Here are some thoughts which I
just was thinking.


The strings are now mostly fixed but when the UI is developed further
there will be new ones or they will be changed. For example the
Bookshelf Manager has things which I definitely want to fix sooner or
later: new dialog page for paths, new Add Source dialog, testing for new
source etc. Therefore I don't want to say "string freeze", but this is
as close as we can get.  Another thing is whether we get some native
English speaker to look through the strings - I bet there are errors and
bad English. Even a minor fix like an article means new work for
translators. Though it makes the lives of the translators hard I would
like to keep the strings open for change because of the quality. Before
the Qt-only release these will be more stabilized.

So, in short: the strings are not "freezed" but I promise to avoid
changes if possible and translators can start their work.


Drag and Drop seems to be the last problematic area which I would like
to fix before the next release, the other things can wait. I thought
that the next release could be beta1 which would be packaged (as I have
reasoned earlier). Though it would be nice to have translations ready
before the distro packages I guess it's unrealistic to wait people (new
or even old translators) to give much attention to unpackaged software -
or do you have another opinion? On the other hand the alpha release is
not a big deal, I didn't even notice the alpha2 :) If it draws the
translators' attention, go ahead.

For further releases I have thought this: the final 1.7 should have
consistent visible UI. It means getting rid of the KDE dialogs: the
config dialog and the search dialog. The other
features/refactorings/small bugs can be selected by the current mood of
the developers :)

I have actually written a release announcement for the imaginary beta1
release. I add it here for evaluation and comments. First the news item,
then the wiki announcement page.


********************************************************

<div class="formalpara">
	<div class="paratitle">2008-xx-xx:  BibleTime 1.7beta1. </div>
	<p>BibleTime 1.7beta1 has been released. Though this version is
labeled as beta it is completely usable and should be stable for daily
work. Packagers and translators are encouraged to start their work.
	<a
href="http://devel.bibletime.info/wiki/BibleTime:Current_events"
target="_top">More...</a>
	</p>
</div>


==2008-xx-xx: 1.7beta1 release==

BibleTime 1.7beta1 has been released as a source package. Much work has
been done since the first alpha release. Please read the
[Current_events#2008-01-12:_1.7alpha1_release alpha1 announcement] -
this text supposes you know what happened back then.

Though this version is labeled as beta it is completely usable and
should be stable for daily work. It is beta only because it still has
some minor missing features, minor inconsistencies due to lacking
KDE->Qt port and because it has not been widely tested. With this
versioning scheme we wanted to avoid giving impression of fully
completed work.

We want to encourage you to download the source code as a [ tarball] or
using svn, [http://devel.bibletime.info/wiki/BuildingBibleTimeOnKDE4
build it] and test it. After finding bugs you can report them in
[http://devel.bibletime.info/wiki/Prerelease_Bugs our Prerelease Bugs
page] as long as you remember that it is for 1.7 branch prerelease bugs
only, not for 1.6 bugs or feature requests.


====Packages====
We strongly encourage the packagers to start their work with 1.7beta1.
As already said, this version is ready for public consumption. We also
depend on having testers but only few people can or want to build the
software themselves. Therefore we need the packagers and new packages.


====Translations====
The translatable strings have changed even more than anticipated.
Complete revision of existing translations is necessary. We have now
reached a state when the strings will not change so much anymore so
translators should start their work if they have not done that already.
See our [http://www.bibletime.info/translation.shtml translations page]
if you find your native language support lacking.


====New and lacking features====
After enhancing the main Bookshelf we have rewritten the Install page of
the Bookshelf Manager. It should be much more intuitive, easy and fast
to use. The Bookshelf Manager uses our own paged dialog which looks a
bit different from the KDE one. The configuration dialog will be ported
to that later. There are some small enhancements like the history list
of the searched modules in the Search dialog.

(Screenshots coming...)

DBUS is now used as a communication channnel instead of DCOP. If some
other application has relied on our DCOP interface it must be changed
(but KDE 4 uses DBUS anyways).

The major lacking feature is still the keyboard shortcut configurator.
It needs quite much work so we don't know when it comes back. The search
analysis has not been ported yet and is disabled. Dragging to the
Bookshelf index is not supported. There may be some other minor features
missing.

====Future plans====
Removing the KDE dependencies has continued. Qt WebKit should have the
API we need in Qt 4.5 but the schedule is still unknown.

If everything goes fine we can release the final 1.7 later this year,
maybe after one or two betas and hopefully when the KDE 4.1 is released
at the end of the summer. 1.7 final will still be dependent on KDE. The
Qt-only version number will start with 2. We can't predict the amount of
work needed for Mac and Windows ports so 2.0 may still be Linux/Unix
only. Optimistic estimation for 2.0 release date is at the end of this
year or early next year.

These plans are not cut into stone and may change if need arises. We
need your prayer support to succeed.

We will still continue fixing bugs for the 1.6.x line for KDE 3 but it
will be dropped in some phase - maybe after the 1.7 final.

====Help!====
Last but not least, we need your help. There are more plans than time or
people. Whatever you skill is, we might be able to find something to do
for you. Important skills include C++, Qt (also with Windows/Mac!),
cmake, HTML/CSS, graphics, testing, usability, translating, English
(native skill needed for UI strings). You don't have to be a guru to
start C++/Qt coding, many of us have started with very little knowlegde.
And as already said, we need prayer. That might even be the most
important help you can give.


<i>-- The BibleTime development team</i>


********************************************************


  Yours,
	Eeli Kaikkonen (Mr.), Oulu, Finland
	e-mail: eekaikko at mailx.studentx.oulux.fix (with no x)