[bt-devel] The next and upcoming releases

[Martin Gruner]

Hi Eeli and others,

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

Good. So soft string freeze from now on.

I think we should set up a list bt-translations at crosswire.org to communicate 
with the translators. What do you think? If you agree, I'll ask Troy.

> 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. 

Good. Before beta1 or final?
BTW: I think you could add some very brief documentation to the existing DnD 
doc page which explains what can be dragged from where to where. But that can 
be after the release.

> 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.

Ok, I'll make a beta1 soon. I need to know when we are ready (we need some 
indicator in the Prerelease bugs page).

> 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 think we should wait with larger refactoring items until after 1.7final. 
They may introduce bugs and break i18n as well. Let's try to push for 1.7 as 
fast as we reasonably can, to make room for further development thereafter.

The only exception I'd like to make is if you say you can do the refactorings 
_now_ in a couple days, so that they can be in beta1, be tested and 
translated.

Ralph Jahnke asked if we get 1.7final done before Aug 28th, which means it 
could enter the next Ubuntu version. I guess that is realistic, isn't it?

I'll add a preliminary schedule to the wiki soon.

Your announcements are good. Just small notes:

> ====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.

I think we should not label beta1 as "final". Packagers should create packages 
for people to test more easily, but we should work towards final for 
real "public" usage.

> ====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.

This is post-1.7.

> 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.

1.7 should only take a few weeks, hopefully.

> ====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.

You should add that who wants to help does not have to have all the listed 
skills at once. =) One or two are already good to help with a particular 
item.

Thanks for the thoughts you put into this! It would be good if you can prepare 
the release announcements and hand them to Joachim when we are ready.

mg