On Tuesday 27 January 2009 21:07:48 Tom Lane wrote:
> Robert Treat <xzilla@users.sourceforge.net> writes:
> > The more I think about it, the more I feel that where we failed for 8.3
> > was not having a short 8.4 cycle lined up, which would give more freedom
> > to bump patches to the next release.
>
> Heh. The reason we wanted a short 8.3 cycle was so we could push out
> patches that had been held over from 8.2.
And the reason that didn't work was because when we got to feature freeze, we
once again had several large, complex patches which people didn't want to
push for the long 8.4 cycle. (But note: people are willing to push patches
when they believe the wait time won't be excessive for eventual inclusion)
> We are going to have exactly
> no credibility if we tell Simon et al "we're pushing these patches to
> 8.5, but don't worry, it'll be a short release cycle".
>
The other options being we stall 8.4 indefinatly waiting for HS (which,
honestly I am comfortable with), or his patches get pushed and he doesnt get
them for another 14 months. Seems to me our credibility isn't really even a
factor here.
Right now I'm really trying to figure out how to solve this problem for the
long term. If we say up front now that the next 2 cycles are short cycles,
then I think people will be more willing to push patches come end-of-8.5 (and
let's not pretend we're not going to have this same argument over streaming
replication or synchronous replay or merge command or whatever hot feature is
almost ready at that time)
> I think the best thing we could do overall is to set release dates and
> stick to them. If your patch is not ready, well, at least it will get
> out in a defined amount of time. Right now, the *real* problem with it
> being pushed to the next release is you don't know how successful some
> other guy will be at persuading us to delay the next release.
>
I wont argue that setting release dates and sticking to them is a bad idea,
but that extra month at the end that that occures due to feature lobbying
doesn't strike me as the straw breaking the camels back, it's the 12-14
months in front of that people don't want to wait through.
--
Robert Treat
Conjecture: http://www.xzilla.net
Consulting: http://www.omniti.com