What are your predictions for the RC cycle?

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Discussion of general topics related to the new release and its place in the world. Don't discuss new features, report bugs, ask for support, et cetera. Don't use this to spam for other boards or attack those boards!
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Ron2K
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What are your predictions for the RC cycle?

Post by Ron2K »

How do you think the RC cycle will turn out?

This is what I would do:
  1. Release RC1. Afterwards, there will probably be quite a few issues relating to people running in live environments. Fix aforementioned issues.
  2. Release RC2. By now there shouldn't be any major problems.
  3. If it wasn't done during the beta phase (and if there aren't a lot of issues with RC2), I would then perform a full security audit, then release RC3 just to make sure that the audit didn't cause more problems than it solved.
  4. If there aren't any major problems with this release, then go final, otherwise release an RC4 first.
Feel free to add your own predictions (and to disagree with my own one if you want).
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Nicholas the Italian
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Re: What are your predictions for the RC cycle?

Post by Nicholas the Italian »

  1. Release of RC1. Going live leads to bunch of new bug reports. Many fixes.
  2. Release of RC2. Security audit, which forces changes that lead to a new release.
  3. Release of RC3. Local newspapers start writing about phpBB3. Lots of new users. New bunch of bugs report.
  4. Release of RC4. CNN prime-time talk-shows discuss new features of phpBB. Lead developer Meik is interviewed. Asked when the final will be out, he answers: "when it's done". New users in China, Japan, Zimbabwe and Lesotho report new bugs with UTF encodings.
  5. Release of RC5. The Pentagon decides to use phpBB for its Top-Secret Strategy Discussion Board. A crash of the system causes a nuclear weapon to be deployed under the White House. Scandal, turmoil, parlamentary inquiries follow. Devs are deported into a military base where they cooperate with CIA officials to fix the issue. Speaking to the press, Meik reminds that the software was given under GNU licence.
  6. Release of RC6. Aliens from Mars decide to use phpBB. They encounter some troubles with character encoding and db structures. UTF64 is implemented.
  7. Release of RC7. UTF64 causes all previous UTF8 boards to crash.
  8. Release of RC8. ...
No, really, I hope there won't be more than 2 RCs; security audit should be done either now or after gold release.
(But who cares? I'll go live with RC1! :mrgreen: )

code reader
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Re: What are your predictions for the RC cycle?

Post by code reader »

i hope that the release process will include frequent patches.
this is good because typically you want an RC stage to be longer than a beta stage, and also because this will exercise the update mechanism.
i would think that 2 or 3 RC stages make sense, with 3 to 4 months per each, and maybe 5 or 6 patches per each RC stage, so it will be something like RC.0.0 ... RC.0.4, RC.1.0 ... RC.1.5, and possibly RC.2.0 ... RC.2.2, and then gold. (= 6 to 12 months from RC 0 release)

i also want to ask the devs to reconsider their decision to only release the "new, mysterious style" with the gold release.
now, that 4 betas are behind us and the fifth is well in the way, you can see that the amount of bugs, bug reports and bug fixes in the style (.html) files is considerable. (4 files added, 1 file removed, 5K likes changed)
it is unreasonable to think that no bugs exist in the new template files, or that all those bugs can be found by the small team of people who have access to the new style.
not exposing the new style until the gold release practically ensures significant number of style-related bugs for 3.0.0 .
iirc, this decision was made several years ago by paul. i think that now, just before the RC, it may be a good time to reconsider.

it is my opinion that the latest point in time it makes sense to expose this new style is the last RC stage, so it may be cleaned for the gold release.

just my 2c.

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Handyman
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Re: What are your predictions for the RC cycle?

Post by Handyman »

@codeReader,

SHS mentioned that all the devs use the new style for their default and when a bug is reported for subSilver, it's also fixed in the new style so they are making sure to keep it all up-to-date and I can certainly see how this is possible and will work for Gold.
They are going about it the right way if they wanna release it in Gold and make sure it is Bug Free.

There may be a bug or 2 here and there, but overall if they are doing exactly what SHS said they are doing, it should be just as stable as subSilver.
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CardsFanInChiTown
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Re: What are your predictions for the RC cycle?

Post by CardsFanInChiTown »

code reader wrote: i would think that 2 or 3 RC stages make sense, with 3 to 4 months per each, and maybe 5 or 6 patches per each RC stage, so it will be something like RC.0.0 ... RC.0.4, RC.1.0 ... RC.1.5, and possibly RC.2.0 ... RC.2.2, and then gold. (= 6 to 12 months from RC 0 release).


If they thought there was going to be more than one RC phase wouldn't they just make another Beta? RC means they *think* it's production ready.

RC1 would be about 3 to 4 mos, really? I would think it'd be shorter.

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Highway of Life
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Re: What are your predictions for the RC cycle?

Post by Highway of Life »

Nicholas the Italian wrote:
  1. Release of RC1. Going live leads to bunch of new bug reports. Many fixes.
  2. Release of RC2. Security audit, which forces changes that lead to a new release.
  3. Release of RC3. Local newspapers start writing about phpBB3. Lots of new users. New bunch of bugs report.
  4. Release of RC4. CNN prime-time talk-shows discuss new features of phpBB. Lead developer Meik is interviewed. Asked when the final will be out, he answers: "when it's done". New users in China, Japan, Zimbabwe and Lesotho report new bugs with UTF encodings.
  5. Release of RC5. The Pentagon decides to use phpBB for its Top-Secret Strategy Discussion Board. A crash of the system causes a nuclear weapon to be deployed under the White House. Scandal, turmoil, parlamentary inquiries follow. Devs are deported into a military base where they cooperate with CIA officials to fix the issue. Speaking to the press, Meik reminds that the software was given under GNU licence.
  6. Release of RC6. Aliens from Mars decide to use phpBB. They encounter some troubles with character encoding and db structures. UTF64 is implemented.
  7. Release of RC7. UTF64 causes all previous UTF8 boards to crash.
  8. Release of RC8. ...

We have soooo much to look forward to. :)
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SamG
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Re: What are your predictions for the RC cycle?

Post by SamG »

code reader wrote: i also want to ask the devs to reconsider their decision to only release the "new, mysterious style" with the gold release.
now, that 4 betas are behind us and the fifth is well in the way, you can see that the amount of bugs, bug reports and bug fixes in the style (.html) files is considerable. (4 files added, 1 file removed, 5K likes changed)
it is unreasonable to think that no bugs exist in the new template files, or that all those bugs can be found by the small team of people who have access to the new style.
not exposing the new style until the gold release practically ensures significant number of style-related bugs for 3.0.0 .
iirc, this decision was made several years ago by paul. i think that now, just before the RC, it may be a good time to reconsider.

Realizing that this is just your opinion/2 cents, let me just note that even if Paul made this decision (which I don't grant), it wasn't an arbitrary one, nor was it the type of decision that ought to come up for periodic review.

Having subSilver available significantly before phpBB 2 final release became a truly nasty experience. Now, it may well be that the dynamics are different this time around (arguably they are) and that that experience would not be repeated. But that's difficult to evaluate with any degree of certainty, especially as nobody thought there would be problems the first time around. And as we all know, there's simply no way to say just how much time might pass from first revealing to final release.

It's a difficult call to make perhaps, but I don't see the relevance of Paul's involvement or non-involvement to this discussion. The crucial issue is what happened last time around and how important it may or may not be to avoid a repeat, as far as I can see.

Just my $0.02
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Highway of Life
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Re: What are your predictions for the RC cycle?

Post by Highway of Life »

SamG wrote: Having subSilver available significantly before phpBB 2 final release became a truly nasty experience.
I've heard this on quite a few occasions, but I'm always taking their word for it, I was not around phpBB when this apparently happened...
What exactly did happen that made it such a "nasty" experience? :?
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SamG
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Re: What are your predictions for the RC cycle?

Post by SamG »

It started with requests to port subSilver to other forum products, prior to phpBB 2 release. James said fine, with the stipulation that nobody release a port until phpBB 2 release.

In short, that didn't happen, or it didn't happen as expected. Again to keep it short, at the end of the day, on phpBB 2.0 final release, phpBB was widely held to have lifted the subSilver look and feel from other products influenced by subSilver and from ports of subSilver to other, more widely used products. That was naturally a little frustrating to the phpBB community, and several people got into serious confrontations over it all. Just as naturally, the developers of these other products felt no obligation to become involved, and phpBB was left hanging by its own rope.

All this because James had kindly said yes to early requests and people had become tired of waiting for 2.0 final release.
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Highway of Life
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Re: What are your predictions for the RC cycle?

Post by Highway of Life »

I'm curious as to what those other products are... I don't recall ever seeing a subSilver style with IPB, vB, or a few others, though I might not be looking hard enough, or they could have discontinued them since the release of phpBB2.
Again, I was not in the BB world when this all came about...
I definitely see how that would cause a problem, and certainly agree 100% with the devs decision to keep the secret style under wraps until Gold...
It's truly a testament to secrecy that they've been able to keep it from the public so well. :D
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