From: Jon M. Taylor <taylorj@ecs.csus.edu>
  To  : ggi-develop@eskimo.com
  Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998 17:28:43 -0700 (PDT)

Re: Time for a stable version release ?

On Fri, 11 Sep 1998, Emmanuel Marty wrote:

> Hello all,
> 
> As Andreas was away and this licensing issue wasn't/isn't resolved we
> haven't updated the stable source tree. We have noticed that people still
> get version 0.0.9 from our ftp/web servers too.
> 
> Even if we're in the middle of a month I think we should make a code
> freeze for the next week or so, and release a stable version. We can
> always release the next stable one in a month from now then.

	Yes.  Lock the devel repository at midnight GMT with a cron job
when the code freeze starts and dump it to the stable repository.  Then 
for a week everyone fixes bugs in the stable tree and at the end of the 
month the next stable release is released and dumped back into the devel 
kernel and we all start hacking again.  Sound OK?
 
> Are there any major code issues to solve for that? kgicon seems to
> work well, so does libggi and the demos. If there is any issue that
> needs fixing before the release, please speak up now.

	I just broke the Glide target |-/.  I was(am) trying to use the 
Linux_common event handling code and it is locking the console.  C-A-D 
works, but VT switching does not.  I would like to know why it is 
possible for non-root userspace code to disable VT switching and the 
magic SysRq key handling!!!

> About the licensing: is everyone OK to adopt what had been discussed ?

	I am.

> All authors, tell me what you think. IMHO the best would be to point
> the source headers to a file describing the license for our software,
> if that's legal? (like, getting them to refer to GGI-LICENSE in
> the root dir of the ggi archive or something).

	The [L]GPL specifically states that you have to have that three 
paragraph legalese header in every GPLed source code file.  Yes, most of 
the GGI code is in violation of the terms of the license - we have ony 
two of the paragraphs.
 
> If there are no pending objections, we should start the code freeze
> sunday night, and only work on bugfixes till next sunday, then update
> the stable CVS tree and replace the putrescent 0.0.9 tarball by it.

	Hang on to the 0.0.9 tree *somewhere*.  I wonder... do wo have 
all past GGI source snapshots?  Everything from scrdrv.tgz to 0.0.9?  Who 
here remebers working with source packages named "newscr-0.0.7" and the 
like? |->

> You all have been doing an awesome work lately, and we seriously need
> to make it easily available instead of having people get our old
> hacks ;)

	PUBLICITY!  EXPOSURE!  Sorry for shouting, but we **NEED** to get 
eyeballs.  Every freakin' month when that next stable release comes out, 
we need:

* A comp.os.linux.announce announcement

* A freshmeat announcement

* A linux-kernel announcement

* Fresh tarballs (gzip and bzip2 versions), RPMs and DEBs of separate 
LibGGI, LibGGI2D, LibGGI3D, LibGWT and kgicon packages should be 
generated automagically.

* A nice-looking website announcement masthead ("what's new", etc) should 
be automagically generated also.


	We need to make it *easy* for people to use GGI.  We need to make 
GGI look attractive.  The less work they have to do to get and use GGI, 
the better off we are.  Open-source development is to some degree a 
competition between various projects for developer talent, much like the 
real world.  And in the real world, developers are wooed.  We need to woo 
people for the health of our project.
 
> Mr. Chris Meadors, are you still alive too? Website stills hows 
> "aug 3: penguinplay irc meeting"....

	People notice that sort of thing.  I tells the reader that this 
project is not advancing very rapidly when in fact the opposite is true.  
A s---load of progress has been made since August 3!!!

Jon 

---
'Cloning and the reprogramming of DNA is the first serious step in 
becoming one with God.'
	- Scientist G. Richard Seed