[GRASS5] release announcement for grass 5.0.3

Scott_Mitchell · November 11, 2003, 1:54am

I'm trying to answer Markus' call for help on the picky details of finishing the release of 5.0.3. I'm editing the 5.0.2 release announcement to create a version for 5.0.3, which is mostly trivial, except for the paragraph describing development branches - it was written before the new roadmap.

So. What should it say ?

Right now it is (I've changed 5.2.x to 5.4.x, but then stopped to seek guidance):

"
The general focus of the GRASS 5.0.x series is stability and reliability.
Major changes in the vector engine and attribute management system are under
development and will reach productional status with the next stable series,
planned as GRASS 5.4.x. 
A great deal of code for GRASS 5.4.x has been already implemented in the
experimental series numbered <a href=../grass51/index.html>5.1.x</a> since
December 2001.
"

It seems to me that "a great deal of code" is now in 5.3 in the nearer term for 5.4, whereas the 5.7 is yet another plane of progress and "wishes"... do we portray both of those in a release announcement, or ... ? In addition, it's probably a good time to give the extra details. Maybe something like:

" The general focus of the GRASS 5.0.x series has been stability and reliability. 5.0.3 will be the last release in this line except for critical bugs. Development on the release branch of GRASS is continuing as 5.3.x, for eventual production release as 5.4.x.

Major changes in the vector engine and attribute management system are also under development in the experimental series <a href="http://grass.itc.it/grass51/index.html">5\.7\.x</a>, which will culminate as 6.x.

Details of this release plan can be viewed in the <a href="roadmap.html">Development Roadmap</a>."

I'm sorry, I didn't follow / remember every detail of the recent mailing list discussions of release numbering, so my wording may not reflect reality well. I have simply tried to reflect the roadmap web document.

Thanks,
Scott

------
Scott W. Mitchell Scott_Mitchell@carleton.ca
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies
Carleton University, B349 Loeb Building
Ottawa, ON Canada
+1-613-520-2600 ext 2695

Bernhard_Reiter · November 11, 2003, 9:08am

On Mon, Nov 10, 2003 at 08:54:18PM -0500, Scott W Mitchell wrote:

I'm trying to answer Markus' call for help on the picky details of
finishing the release of 5.0.3. I'm editing the 5.0.2 release
announcement to create a version for 5.0.3, which is mostly trivial,
except for the paragraph describing development branches - it was
written before the new roadmap.

So. What should it say ?

Right now it is (I've changed 5.2.x to 5.4.x, but then stopped to seek
guidance):

"
The general focus of the GRASS 5.0.x series is stability and
reliability.
Major changes in the vector engine and attribute management system are
under
development and will reach productional status with the next stable
series,
planned as GRASS 5.4.x. 
A great deal of code for GRASS 5.4.x has been already implemented in the
experimental series numbered <a href=../grass51/index.html>5.1.x</a>
since
December 2001.
"

That is 5.8.x now.
We probably should rephrase it to say the following

  GRASS 5.0.3 only fixes major bugs.
  There are no further scheduled releases in the 5.0.x series.
  Exception might be made for critical bug fixes.

The next planned stable release is 5.4.0. The corresponding
development series 5.3.x features improvements in ...

  Note that the majorly improved vector engine
  and attribute management systems are already in the
  experimental 5.7.x line.

We always look for testers, and developers
helping us to maintain a faster release cycle.

Just a suggestion.

It seems to me that "a great deal of code" is now in 5.3 in the nearer
term for 5.4, whereas the 5.7 is yet another plane of progress and
"wishes"... do we portray both of those in a release announcement, or
... ? In addition, it's probably a good time to give the extra
details. Maybe something like:

" The general focus of the GRASS 5.0.x series has been stability and
reliability. 5.0.3 will be the last release in this line except for
critical bugs. Development on the release branch of GRASS is
continuing as 5.3.x, for eventual production release as 5.4.x. 

Major changes in the vector engine and attribute management system are
also under development in the experimental series <a
href="http://grass.itc.it/grass51/index.html">5\.7\.x</a>, which will
culminate as 6.x.

I still believe that this should be 5.8.x.

Details of this release plan can be viewed in the <a
href="roadmap.html">Development Roadmap</a>."

I'm sorry, I didn't follow / remember every detail of the recent
mailing list discussions of release numbering, so my wording may not
reflect reality well. I have simply tried to reflect the roadmap web
document.

Your understanding seems fine to me.

Scott_Mitchell · November 11, 2003, 7:13pm

Last chance for suggestions / objections:

(html/formatted version temporarily available at
http://rideau.carleton.ca/~smitch/announce_grass503.html )

The GRASS Development Team announces:
GRASS GIS 5.0.3 released 11 November 2003
A new bugfix release of GRASS 5.0.x has been published today.
The Geographic Resources Analysis Support System, commonly referred to as GRASS GIS, is a Geographic Information System (GIS) used for data management, image processing, graphics production, spatial modeling, and visualization of many types of data. It is Free Software released unter GNU General Public License (GPL).
Platforms supported by GRASS:
GNU/Linux, Sun Solaris, Sun Solaris/Intel, Silicon Graphics Irix, Mac OSX, MS-Windows NT/2000/XP with Cygnus, HP-UX, DEC-Alpha, PowerPC, AIX, BSD, CRAY, iPAQ/Linux and other UNIX compliant platforms (32/64bit).
Software download:
http://grass.itc.it , http://grass.ibiblio.org/ and from various mirror sites. The new source code is available now, and selected binaries will be published shortly.
Documentation download:
Module documentation is available in different formats: HTML and PDF.
For details on GRASS software capabilities please refer to: http://grass.itc.it/general.html.
Changes in GRASS 5.0.3:
A NEWS file briefly describes the major changes, the full ChangeLog is also available.

GRASS 5.0.3 fixes only major bugs. There are no further scheduled releases in the 5.0.x series. Exception might be made for critical bug fixes.

The next planned stable release is 5.4.0. The corresponding development series 5.3.x features substantial improvements in projection capabilities, visualization ("nviz"), and has several new modules.

Major changes to the vector engine and attribute management system have been implemented in the 5.7.x line, which will become the next major production series as 5.8.x.

We are always looking for both testers and developers to help us maintain and accelerate this development cycle.
GRASS Development Team
Date: Mon, 6 November 2003 (last changed: $Date: 2003/11/11 19:06:33 $) 01:00:00 +0000 (GMT)

On Tuesday, Nov 11, 2003, at 04:08 Canada/Eastern, Bernhard Reiter wrote:

On Mon, Nov 10, 2003 at 08:54:18PM -0500, Scott W Mitchell wrote:

I'm trying to answer Markus' call for help on the picky details of
finishing the release of 5.0.3. I'm editing the 5.0.2 release
announcement to create a version for 5.0.3, which is mostly trivial,
except for the paragraph describing development branches - it was
written before the new roadmap.

So. What should it say ?

That is 5.8.x now.
We probably should rephrase it to say the following

  GRASS 5.0.3 only fixes major bugs.
  There are no further scheduled releases in the 5.0.x series.
  Exception might be made for critical bug fixes.

  The next planned stable release is 5.4.0. The corresponding
  development series 5.3.x features improvements in ...

  Note that the majorly improved vector engine
  and attribute management systems are already in the
  experimental 5.7.x line.

  We always look for testers, and developers
  helping us to maintain a faster release cycle.

Just a suggestion.

------
Scott W. Mitchell Scott_Mitchell@carleton.ca
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies
Carleton University, B349 Loeb Building (Office A209)
1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON Canada K1S 5B6
+1-613-520-2600 ext 2695 Fax: 1-613-520-4301

Bernhard_Reiter · November 11, 2003, 7:32pm

On Tue, Nov 11, 2003 at 02:13:19PM -0500, Scott Mitchell wrote:

Last chance for suggestions / objections:

(html/formatted version temporarily available at
http://rideau.carleton.ca/~smitch/announce_grass503.html )

The GRASS Development Team announces:
GRASS GIS 5.0.3 released 11 November 2003
A new bugfix release of GRASS 5.0.x has been published today.

This is the stable release GRASS. V5.0.3 is a bugfix release.

Platforms supported by GRASS:
GNU/Linux, Sun Solaris, Sun Solaris/Intel, Silicon Graphics Irix,
Mac OSX, MS-Windows NT/2000/XP with Cygnus, HP-UX, DEC-Alpha, PowerPC, AIX,
BSD, CRAY, iPAQ/Linux and other UNIX compliant platforms (32/64bit).

"PowerPC" isn't a platform, you can get several unix like operating
system for PowerPCs.

I'm not sure actually if somebody really supports a CRAY port.

GRASS 5.0.3 fixes only major bugs. There are no further scheduled
releases in the 5.0.x series. Exception might be made for critical bug
fixes.

Exceptions

Glynn_Clements · November 11, 2003, 10:53pm

Scott Mitchell wrote:

Last chance for suggestions / objections:

GRASS 5.0.3 fixes only major bugs.

I don't think that the word "major" is necessary, or even accurate.
Some of the bugs which are fixed are quite minor.

The essential point is that it is only bug fixes, without any
"improvements" which might break things (e.g. changing existing
behaviour, adding new features which increase the chance of
compilation failure, etc).

There are no further scheduled
releases in the 5.0.x series. Exception might be made for critical bug
fixes.

Again, I think that "critical" might be too strong. If any non-trivial
bugs are subsequently found, I would consider making another release.

5.4 is likely to be sufficiently different that it shouldn't be the
only option in the case where someone encounters a problem with 5.0.3.

IMHO, this also includes the case where someone has been using 5.0.x,
changes their hardware or OS, and finds that 5.0.3 won't compile on
the new system.

--
Glynn Clements <glynn.clements@virgin.net>

H_B · November 13, 2003, 12:36pm

Last chance for suggestions / objections:

(html/formatted version temporarily available at
http://rideau.carleton.ca/~smitch/announce_grass503.html )

...

Software download:
http://grass.itc.it , http://grass.ibiblio.org/ and from various mirror
sites.

http://grass.ibiblio.org/ ==> http://grass.ibiblio.org

Documentation download:
Module documentation is available in different formats: HTML and PDF.

"Module documentation is available in both HTML and PDF formats."
[for a press release, who cares?]

For details on GRASS software capabilities please refer to:
http://grass.itc.it/general.html.

might get rid of the trailing "." ... someone is sure to try and type that in.

Changes in GRASS 5.0.3:
A NEWS file briefly describes the major changes, the full ChangeLog is
also available.

again, for a press release this is too much information..?

Hamish