Re: [Libreoffice] Release criteria

Andrea Pescetti píše v Ne 05. 12. 2010 v 18:39 +0100:
> On 26/11/2010 Petr Mladek wrote:
> > http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Release_Criteria
> > Feel free to update it or propose improvements. Especially, I am not
> > sure about bugs in localizations.
>
> So a major change with respect to the OpenOffice.org release process
> would be that no explicit approval is needed for localized versions.
>
> This is probably related to the multi-language build model, where you
> don't want to wait for 20 or so explicit approvals in order to release
> the English version, but still distributing possibly untested software
> does not seem very good to me: I did see cases at OpenOffice.org where
> only one localized version would not start, or would have blocking
> issues.

I understand your concerns. We came with the central build because of
the many advantages:

        + translators do not need to fight with technical problems
        + save space (do not duplicate binaries)
        + packaging is standardized, compatible, ...

I have several ideas how to solve the above problem:

        + do smoke test of each localization to make sure that it starts
          at least; we should do it anyway
        + do more and more frequent bug fix releases with only safe and
          critical fixes; it is a bit questionable because of resources
        + allow to later update just a single localization; I am not
          sure if 3.3 release is technically ready for this; especially,
          I am not sure how this would work on Windows.

Would something of the above be acceptable solution for you? 

BTW: My dream is to provide a build kit for localizations team. It would
be similar to SDK. It would provide scripts and data files. Translators
would need to localize the data files (po-files, icons, templates...)
and just call a script to produce the installer.


> If you need very recent examples, in the OOo 3.3 release cycle at least
> two localization-specific stoppers were found and fixed upstream in
> OpenOffice.org and thus ported to LibreOffice too:
> http://qa.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=115232 [IT only]
> http://qa.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=115774 [FR only]

They were found during the rc phase, so it was in time. The question is
how many similar bugs are missed during the rc phase and how many of the
missed bugs are real blockers.


Best Regards,
Petr