Subject: Re: On the Road to version 1.0
From: Bryce Nesbitt (bryce@obviously.com)
Date: Tue Dec 18 2001 - 13:57:09 CST
Hmmm. There seems to be not enough emphasis on nailing down crashing bugs.
How about a specific earlier target for fixing all known crashing bugs. Then,
hold a "torture the ant" contest where developers & users compete to try and
find the most new ways to crash AbiWord? AbiWord is not feature rich, it's
strength should be stability.
---------
As for feature freeze, I'm not so sure. Have people sat down and worked through
user scenarios? Can AbiWord write a book? Work as a low cost word replacement?
The recent word import/export improvements have gone a long way, but maybe that's
not enough.
I doubt there is any actual new feature required, but some of the existing
features might not be quite solid enough for general use. Features not
ready for prime time should be removed. Possible examples:
* .svg import (which does nothing but mess up documents for me)
* Smart quotes on Linux (the checkbox has no useful effect)
* Autotext
* Styles (which are still a bit unpredictable)
* Bookmarks (which are, as far as I can tell, are invisible after insertion)
* Execute script (which just says ATTN: for me)
Do import/export filters work correctly for character sets across platforms?
Is an AbiWord document really portable? Because of issues like smart quotes, I think
the answer is currently "not quite".
Is image insertion really ready? The lack of .gif and .eps import are hard to take.
The inability to resize an image, or flow text around it, is a real downside.
I think a review of the existing feature set for solidity and completeness would
be in order. No new functionality here, but ask if each subfeature works well
enough to call it 1.0. If not, fix it or disable it for 1.0. AbiWord has been popular
with less features. A half baked feature does not belong in 1.0.
-Bryce
Dom Lachowicz wrote:
>
> Hi guys,
>
> This email is long overdue, but it's better late than never.
>
> At this time, I'd like to propose a schedule toward our releasing
> AbiWord version 1.0
>
> ================================
>
> There are currently about 500 bugs in an Open, Submit, or POSTPONED
> state in Bugzilla, and this number is likely to rise in the near future.
> There are also tons of bugs that need to be verified, opened, closed,
> tested, and many more need triage. I'm calling for help here from
> developers and users alike to help us out here. If you have 5 or 10 free
> minutes, this could make all the difference to us. Not all bugs in
> bugzilla will be marked as 1.0 release critical - many don't deserve to
> be, many others would require us to rewrite AbiWord's layout engine (for
> example), and others are just plain goofy. Still others are requests for
> enhancement and probably should be postponed to post 1.0. Of the 500
> current bugs, my preliminary (educated) guess is that about 250 of these
> should be fixed or otherwise closed before 1.0 and the other 250 should
> be properly targetted toward post 1.0 releases
>
> ================================
>
> Required platforms for 1.0:
> --------------------------------
> *Win32, Win32 Bidi
> *Linux GTK+, GTK+ Bidi (ia32 and ppc archs)
> *Linux Gnome, Gnome Bidi (ia32 and ppc archs)
>
> "Would be nice" platforms for 1.0:
> --------------------------------
> *Solaris Sparc GTK+ Mono-di
> **BSD ia32 GTK+ and Gnome, mono-di and bidi
> *QNX ia32 Mono-di (pending free-time from thomasf, else see BeOs notes)
>
> "Impossible" platforms for 1.0:
> --------------------------------
> *MacOS
> *BeOS ia32 (though if someone steps up to do the required work, we could
> release a "developer's snapshot" of BeOs AbiWord)
>
> ================================
>
> Preliminary schedule:
>
> Feature freeze: TODAY. There will be no more features checked into the
> tree, unless they are considered ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY and are currently
> filed in Bugzilla. These would be anything considered as a RELEASE
> BLOCKER and I don't think that there will be many (if any) of these
> commits needed. If you're hankering for a new feature or functionality,
> feel free to check it into AbiWord-Plugins
>
> Soft String freeze: This Friday, the Dec 21st. I say "soft" here because
> some bugzilla bugs may require the addition of or changing of strings,
> and this is both unavoidable and worthwhile.
>
> Documentation freeze: English language documentation should be done by
> January 4, 2002 to allow time for adequate translations.
>
> Hard String freeze: January 7, 2002. Bugzilla bugs that require new
> strings or an alteration of existing string will have to be done by this
> date or will have to wait until 1.0.1. NO EXCEPTIONS.
>
> AbiWord 0.99.1 aka 1.0 Alpha 1: January 8, 2002. ~50% of 1.0 release
> critical bugs should be fixed by this date.
>
> Translation freeze (both strings and documentation): January 18. We will
> no longer accept new translations, documentation updates, or anything of
> the sort after this date. NO EXCEPTIONS.
>
> AbiWord 0.99.2 aka 1.0 Beta 1: January 19, 2002. ~66% of 1.0 release
> critical bugs should be fixed by this date.
>
> AbiWord 0.99.3 aka 1.0 Beta 2: January 23, 2002. ~75% of 1.0 release
> critical bugs should be fixed by this date.
>
> AbiWord 0.99.4 aka 1.0 Pre 1 : January 27, 2002. ~85% of 1.0 release
> critical bugs should be fixed by this date.
>
> AbiWord 1.0 final: January 31, 2002. Ideally, between 90% and 100% of
> 1.0 targetted bugs would be here. Ideally NO KNOWN CRASHERS
>
> ================================
>
> Requirements:
>
> * FEW/NO KNOWN CRASHERS
> * Adequate working translations
> * As many dictionaries as humanly possible
> * Adequate documentation:
> - David's docs, integrated with our help system, translated
> - Installion documents for all required platforms and subplatforms
> (rpm, tgz, deb, ...)
> - HOWTO/FAQs, especially for the more annoying and prominant bugs
> (Bidi vs Monodi, unix font handling/setup, ttf, ...)
>
> ================================
>
> I'm looking for more feedback from everyone here. The release schedule
> is set in mud, not stone right now, so a bit of movement is possible,
> but not a whole lot. Getting 1.0 out the door will be a big process, but
> it's going to kick some major ass. I want to thank everyone who has (and
> will) put in their valuable time toward making our 1.0 release the
> greatest ever!
>
> Dom
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Tue Dec 18 2001 - 13:59:06 CST