Re: [boost] [1.41.0] Beta 2 plans

Subject: Re: [boost] [1.41.0] Beta 2 plans
From: Robert Ramey (ramey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-11-07 12:52:45

Beman Dawes wrote:
> Due to the issues exposed in the "Official warnings policy?" thread,
> there will be a second 1.41.0 beta, tentatively scheduled for Sunday,
> November 15th.
>
> Until Saturday, November 14th, the release branch is open for merges
> of low-risk bug fixes. In particular, fixes that clear compiler
> warnings are encouraged.

I don't think this is a great idea at this point.  I believe that
the criteria for a release is that the release branch is strictly
better than the last release.  Setting new goals/requirements
at this juncture will start a whole new round of delays and
pleas for "just one more thing".  If there is some particular
library which has been merged from trunk to release and
it has resulted in a violation of the "strict improvement"
criteria, (ie a regression), it can be backed to the last
release.

I also believe that starting to fix warnings like this
will raise a whole new set of questions - e.g. which warning
level should be used which will require lot's of
discussion, and tweaking (e.g. boost::noncopyable).
The release process isn't a good place for all that.

> Please do, however, make sure any changes are
> stable on trunk before merging them to release.

Glad we haven't succumbed to taking a shortcut here.

The releae has already been delayed several times for
"just one more thing".  And this is after the "release
date" was well publisized and postponed a couple of times.
Boost will never be perfect.  But we can't let this
hold up progress on making it better.

Robert Ramey