[Python-3000] The release process

[Christian Heimes]

Barry Warsaw wrote:
> I will definitely need help keeping the various NEWS files up to
> date.  I don't see any way that I'll be able to spend time on these
> when I'm cutting a release.  Python 2.6 NEWS was simply impossible to
> proofread because of its sheer size and the fact that it was the first
> alpha of the series.
> 
> PEP 101 describes 4 news files: Misc/NEWS and Lib/idlelib/NEWS.txt for
> both 2.6 and 3.0.  I am urgently requesting that when people commit
> newsworthy items to the Python releases that they keep the NEWS files
> up-to-date.  This is especially tricky for code merged between the two
> versions.  Thanks to Neal for looking over 3.0's NEWS file last
> night.  As RM, I am going to operate on the assumption that the NEWS
> files are up-to-date.  I'd be thrilled if someone volunteered to be
> the "NEWS czar" -- we all know when the next alpha release is coming
> (Friday March 25), so this czar would be responsible for watching
> commits and making sure that NEWS was updated as appropriate, or
> harassing the committer into updating NEWS to describe their new
> feature.  If you'd like to be this NEWS czar, please let me know.

I *never* sync changes from trunk Misc/NEWS to py3k Misc/NEWS. From my
point of view it doesn't make sense to put Python 2.6 changes in the
same section as Python 3.0 changes. Moving changes from to the right
section would put a large and unnecessary burden on me. In general every
change of the 2.6 source tree makes it into 3.0. Exceptions to the rule
is stuff that makes no sense like 3.0 compatibility and warnings.

Thumb rule: Changes, bug fixes and new features in 2.6 are also in 3.0
except they are outruled by a Python 3.0 feature.

Several people including me and Guido himself are watching the cvs
lists. We make sure everybody adds an entry to Misc/NEWS whenever a bug
is fixed or a new feature is added. Otherwise we crack the whip ^H^H^H
contact the committer. You can be sure that at least 98% of  all closed
bug reports, feature request and important changes have an entry in
Misc/NEWS.

So in general Misc/NEWS isn't an issue but Docs/whatsnew/ is. Only a
couple of people - mostly Georg and Andrew - are updating the files.

Christian