[hylafax-users] How does a HylaFAX release happen?

["Darren Nickerson" <darren.nickerson@xxxxxxxx>]

Folks,

As I'm sure most of you know, much of the success and popularity of Free and 
Open Source Software (FOSS) relies on the openness and transparency of the 
development process. While the developers, as a community, do strive to be 
as open and as transparent as possible, there's always room for improvement 
in how we as developers communicate with one another, and also with the user 
community. In this email, I'd like to explain how HylaFAX releases happen, 
and how you can participate in the development process. I've cross-posted it 
to hylafax-users and to hylafax-devel, but I ask that anyone who wishes to 
comment or ask questions do so by following-up to the 
hylafax-devel@xxxxxxxxxxx mailing list exclusively. PLEASE DO NOT 
CROSSPOST!!!


Q1: So who decides when it's time to cut a new release?

A1: The simple answer is that you do. As with most aspects of HylaFAX 
development, the decision to trigger a release cycle is made by the 
community, using a methodology generally referred to as "rough concensus". 
The process may be initiated by anyone, by dropping an email to the 
hylafax-devel@xxxxxxxxxxx mailing list. There will be an expectation that if 
you have taken the time to compose such an email, you will also have taken 
the time to familiarize yourself with changes to CVS HEAD since the last 
official release, and believe there to be sufficient value in those changes 
to justify a new release. You may be called upon to defend or advocate for 
your position, so be prepared for some discussion! Discussion on the list 
will eventually converge to a rough concensus, and a decision will be taken 
to either trigger a release cycle or continue development. Silence will be 
interpreted as support for the proposed release, so make sure your opinion 
is heard!


Q2: What does a release cycle look like?

A2. The first phase of a release cycle is a 'feature freeze', where nothing 
is committed to CVS which adds or removes any significant features. 
Developers should tidy up any loose ends that might remain on work they have 
committed since the last official release and should advocate for any bugs, 
issues and/or patches that they think should be considered before moving to 
the next phase - the beta release. Once rough concensus seems to have been 
reached I will issue a last call for comments, and if there are no 
objections I will tag and release the first beta release. Early beta 
releases will be announced on the hylafax-devel mailing list only, and 
developers will be strongly encouraged to download and compile the beta on 
their setups and test it thoroughly. Each beta will live for a period of 
approximately two weeks. If after two weeks no significant changes have been 
necessary to any beta release, that beta will become a release candidate. 
Release candidates will be announced on the hylafax-announce mailing list, 
which includes hylafax-devel and hylafax-users, as well as anyone who 
subscribed to the -announce list explicitly. If any significant surgery is 
necessary within two weeks of this wider testing, a new release candidate 
will be issued and the clock will start over. If no changes or only minor 
changes are needed, the release candidate becomes a release and I will 
package and announce it to hylafax-announce@xxxxxxxxxxxx


Q3: Sounds like fun - how can I get involved?

A3: Great question! Every single step outlined above benefits from the 
participation of as many people as possible. If you're a hardcore developer 
looking for a challenge, visit http://www.hylafax.org/cvs.html and find 
yourself a pet project, or perhaps even a pet peeve. Contribute! You'll find 
the developers in general very responsive to contributions and/or criticism, 
and everyone's welcome to contribute at this leve. See 
http://www.hylafax.org/mailing-lists.html for instructions on how to join 
the hylafax-devel mailing list if you'd like to participate in discussions, 
or just follow along for the sheer entertainment value ;-) The next best way 
you can help is to test the beta releases, and especially the release 
candidates. You can do a service to the whole HylaFAX community by trying to 
break an upcoming release before it's finalized!


Q4: What is your role in this whole process? Whose interests do you serve?

A4: I founded hylafax.org in 1998, and got it off the ground thanks in part 
to the particularly heroic efforts of Robert Colquhoun and Phil Watkinson. 
These days my company pays me and a few other engineers to spend some of our 
time administering hylafax.org and the various related services. I'm not 
much more than a glorified secretary in the release process, keeping track 
of when concensus has been reached, packaging up the releases and getting 
them up onto ftp.hylafax.org. I serve the interests of the community now 
just as I did then. For more details on the birth of hylafax.org, see:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/fa.hylafax/browse_thread/thread/51de9ecf28825270/f958e28af01220af

and for a longer discussion from various stakeholders at that time, see:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/fa.hylafax/browse_thread/thread/1153d2b98db5a482/5bb8351359e1cee8



Q5: So with all this talk of a release ... does that mean we are due for 
one?

A5: You're just going to have to join hylafax-devel@xxxxxxxxxxx and see for 
yourself! ;-)

Sincerely,

--
Darren Nickerson
Senior Sales & Support Engineer
iFAX Solutions, Inc. www.ifax.com
darren.nickerson@xxxxxxxx
+1.215.438.4638 x8106
+1.215.243.8335 (fax) 


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