[darcs-devel] preparing for the darcs-2 release (and what comes after)

[Mark Stosberg]

> I propose to eliminate the two-branch system in which we've got both an
> unstable and a stable branch of darcs.

I approve of this, for you the reasons you state. We can always branch 
again later.

> My thought is to reduce the number of jobs expected of a maintainer to just
> a few.  The maintainer must review patches, and has to decide when to
> release (which is critically related to reviewing patches: determining
> which patches are truly "safe" and also which are important enough to
> accelerate a release).  Keeping the bug tracker up-to-date needn't be the
> maintainer's job, as anyone else can do that.  Maintaining the ChangeLog
> doesn't need to be the maintainer's job, as anyone can submit patches to do
> this.  Even writing the release notes need not be the maintainer's job.
> Putting up tarballs does need to be the maintainer's job.
> 
> I should note that many of these jobs have been taken on by folks who
> aren't darcs maintainers.  Most notable is Mark, who spend a lot of time
> cleaning up the bug tracker and writing up ChangeLog entries.  (Actually,
> we could also just do without a ChangeLog.)  But the problem has been that
> in the past maintainers have felt (probably modelling after me, who felt
> this way) that it was their responsibility that these things get done.

I think this approach will be more sustainable. For my part, I will try 
to help recruit and/or mentor another bug triage person. I also vote for 
a much simplified ChangeLog system, like other projects have. They look 
more like this:

  * Added Major feature #2
  * Fixed Big Bug #3
  * Lots of other bug fixes and improvements

Essentially, a lot gets glossed over, but it's probably more at the 
level most users care about it. There is "darcs changes" for those who 
want a lot of detail.  I spent hours working with the current system 
this time around, and it wasn't particularly enjoyable.

I'm currently trying to focus on finishing publishing a map of bike 
commuting routes for my town, to be done by May, and then have some 
vacation time in May, so I will be less available for darcs myself in 
the next few weeks, but plan to keep contributing some.

     Mark