Weekly 0.17 release status - feature freeze period begins

[Ian Clatworthy]

Hi,

This is the weekly summary on the status of 0.17. Thanks to *everyone*
who has submitted patches, feedback and bug reports in recent weeks.
Every bit helps.

As announced last week, the key 0.17 dates are:

* Jun 4 - feature freeze begins
* Jun 12 - Release Candidate 1
* Jun 18 - ship date

Jun 4 is coming to a close around the globe so the time for arbitrary
changes to bzr.dev is *almost* passed. With the exception of some
particular changes which are the "headline" improvements for 0.17,
*please ensure that all changes to bzr.dev this week are low risk*. If
in doubt, please ask me (and I'll ask others if I'm unsure).

Note also that any regressions found between now and Jun 12 may need to
be backed out unless a fix can be safely delivered. On Jun 12, a branch
will be created for 0.17 and the trunk will be reopened for general
check-ins. See http://bazaar-vcs.org/FeatureFreeze for more details on
the rules we adopt during the feature freeze period.

The planned headline improvements for 0.17 are incrementally faster
performance on some common operations and removal of known dirstate
regressions. Here is a brief status report on the performance work:

* faster status and diff - John's changes landed but pyrex work
  may not make it (subject to feedback from Robert today)

* faster merge (and bundle) - I'm planning to hold the release until
  this lands, assuming Aaron can turn around Robert's review feedback
  in the next 48 hours

* faster checkout and branch - thanks to Aaron for his efforts on making
  TreeTransform faster and to John for a detailed review overnight. This
  is now approved ready to be merged.

* faster commit - I need to include better doc highlighting the API
  changes around kind() and is_executable() for working trees, check
  with Robert re any remaining concerns, then merge. Thanks to Robert
  and John for their reviews in the last 24 hours.

In summary, we need to wrap up some reviews and merges as much as
possible today, if not tomorrow. I'll make a point of mailing the list
when they have landed. Technically, that put us a little behind
schedule. Practically, our Release Candidate 1 date is next Tuesday, not
Monday, so I believe the overall risk in allowing these key changes to
go in early this week is acceptable.

BTW, now is a *great* time to get involved helping the Bazaar community.
While 0.17 will be an incremental performance and quality release,
Robert has now published the bigger picture roadmap put together during
the recent London sprint. That roadmap includes a range of work - *much*
faster performance, better documentation, etc. Of course, some things
will take time to cook but others, like the work Andrew and Robert have
done on a new container format, could land as early as 0.18. If you're
interested in helping in any way you can, send us an email or drop in on
#bzr (irc.freenode.net) and introduce yourself.

If you can help this week, our focus will be on fixing Critical and High
bugs, and testing the latest bzr.dev code.

Cheers,
Ian C.