DIP75 - Release Process

[Andrei Alexandrescu via Digitalmars-d]

On 3/6/15 8:54 PM, David Soria Parra wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've been working with Martin Nowak and Andrei in the last few weeks to
> get ideas and write up a DIP on D's release process. With D maturing
> more and more I believe it is time to formalize the release process and
> do a time based release process in order to make release processes more
> predictable, easier to maintain and synchronize with release cycles of
> major distributions. Similar approaches have been adopted in other
> communities and worked out well. The DIP is mostly based on lessons
> learned from other communities. So please go ahead:
>
>    http://wiki.dlang.org/DIP75
>
> Destroy it.
>
>   - David

This looks good and is simple and easy to follow enough that I am 
optimistic it can be actually observed. I do have a couple of 
notes/caveats to make:

1. A process is effective only if properly executed. I like DIP75, but a 
lot of my liking is contingent upon it being implemented in letter and 
in spirit. If there's anything in there that doesn't have on board 
Martin, David, and as many as other interested community members as 
possible, please speak up now. We need a high level of consensus to make 
this happen repeatably.

2. I'm a bit worried about the release and packaging being separated. It 
makes a lot of sense from the perspective of distributing 
responsibility, modularity, separation of concerns, simplifying 
processes, etc. It's just that if we exclude packaging from the release 
process it is just left at the discretion of less organized volunteers.

3. As I articulated in the vision document, we aim at making vibe.d an 
integral part of the D distribution. That's more than a packaging issue: 
(a) vibe.d must follow the same release process, perhaps even same 
version numbering; (b) acceptance of a release is contingent upon vibe.d 
working. I think we need to secure Sönke approval of DIP75.


Andrei