Final word on OpenAL?

[Sven Panne]

Am Mittwoch, 29. April 2009 11:46:27 schrieb Duncan Coutts:
> Sven, I don't want to sound like I'm picking on your packages but I
> think we should stick to the current versions for the first release.
> [...] We need to get away from the idea that
> releases should be delayed because of some cool new feature in one or
> two components. [...]

I do not want to delay the initial release, there is still plenty of time 
until the release on Monday. And my proposal is not about including "some cool 
new features", but about shipping very important bug fixes and some crucial 
features I've been asked for ages. Releasing the current versions is a great 
recipe to provoke tons of bug reports, whose causes have already been fixed.

> It means we don't constantly need
> to communicate between a few dozen maintainers and release managers on
> when the releases will be. We just have a fixed date and a schedule for
> when packages have to be on Hackage prior to a release. [...]

I can only speak for myself, but the current release schedule was very, very 
poorly communicated (i.e. not at all). I don't know if it has been buried in 
some Wiki page or in some mailing list I don't know about, but actually I 
don't care. I simply do not have the time to poll tons of Wikis and mailing 
lists, so some *active* prior notification of the package maintainers about 
schedules would have been nice. Today is the first day that I've seen concrete 
dates.

> I hope that sounds reasonable. 

If there were clearly communicated schedules, yes. Given the current state of 
affairs, no.

> We don't want to discourage you or other
> maintainers from polishing your packages, on the contrary.

But it actually *is* discouraging. Immediately when I was aware of the fact 
that there might be some initial release "soon", I've packed as much bug fixes 
and requested crucial features into my last releases as I could, only to hear 
that it is too late (for no good reason).

Cheers,
   S.