[Python-Dev] release plan for 2.5 ?

[Neal Norwitz]

On 2/10/06, Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:
>
> Next, the schedule. Neal's draft of the schedule has us releasing 2.5
> in October. That feels late -- nearly two years after 2.4 (which was
> released on Nov 30, 2004). Do people think it's reasonable to strive
> for a more aggressive (by a month) schedule, like this:
>
>     alpha 1: May 2006
>     alpha 2: June 2006
>     beta 1:  July 2006
>     beta 2:  August 2006
>     rc 1:    September 2006
>     final:   September 2006

I think this is very reasonable.  Based on Martin's message and if we
can get everyone fired up and implementing, it would possible to start
in April.  I'll update the PEP for starting in May now.  We can revise
further later.

> ??? Would anyone want to be even more aggressive (e.g. alpha 1 right
> after PyCon???). We could always do three alphas.

I think PyCon is too early, but 3 alphas is a good idea.  I'll add
this as well.  Probably separated by 3-4 weeks so it doesn't change
the schedule much.  The exact schedule will still changed based on
release manager availability and other stuff that needs to be
implemented.

> >    PEP 353: Using ssize_t as the index type
>
> Neal tells me that this is in progress in a branch, but that the code
> is not yet flawless (tons of warnings etc.). Martin, can you tell us
> more? When do you expect this to land? Maybe aggressively merging into
> the HEAD and then releasing it as alpha would be a good way to shake
> out the final issues???

I'm tempted to say we should merge now.  I know the branch works on
64-bit boxes.  I can test on a 32-bit box if Martin hasn't already. 
There will be a lot of churn fixing problems, but maybe we can get
more people involved.

n