bzr needs new windows maintainer

[Ian Clatworthy]

Alexander Belchenko wrote:

> I have a mixed feelings about bzr during very long time (more than year
> now).
> I think now it will be better for me (in first place) to leave this
> project.
> May be it will be better for bzr project too.

Alexander,

Having just returned from a holiday, I'm very aware right now of the
benefits of some time out. Leaving might be the best thing for you
personally and only you can decide that. It certainly isn't better for
Bazaar: your drive, wisdom, experience and effort will all be greatly
missed. Your contribute to Bazaar has been huge and of lasting benefit
to all of us.

> Recent situation around versioned properties is not the main reason,
> but the last straw. As I said last year I'm also have some doubts about
> my participation in this project. Now I think it's better to me to go away.

Just to be clear, many of us want versioned properties (or something
similar) and understand their potential value, particularly for
integrating external tools. From my perspective, the main debate right
now is whether content-filtering features (like eol support) are more
core than that. In other words, is it wise to have properties that
affect how Bazaar itself works mixed in with an "arbitrary" collection
of user attributes? There are undoubtedly good arguments either way and
we want to get this right. This feature will be used a *lot* by plugins
and 3rd party tools so we need to all be sure about its impact before we
let the genie out of the bottle.

I'm going to continue working on integrating the various pieces you've
put forward: eol support, VPs, etc. The final result may not be how you
would have done it but I hope the end result is to your liking, widely
applicable, easy to support and fast.

Keep in touch and thank-you for everything you've done: Windows support,
countless patches and reviews, bug triaging, email discussions,
community development and so much more. I hope you choose to actively
contribute again at some time in the future.

Ian C.