metronome mail for Bazaar 2.0 and 1.18

[Ian Clatworthy]

Martin Pool wrote:

> For people on Windows or Mac, testing or helping with the installers
> will help too.

On the Windows/Mac fronts, we now have teams of 24 and 17 people
respectively. The discussions to date have been great and I'm optimistic
we'll have better packaging on at least Windows by the 2.0 release. (The
Mac team has only just started so we're still in the RFC/RFI stage
rather than the "put your hand up" stage.)

And let's not forget better packaging on the Linux distros, BSD, etc.
I'd like to see at least Debian packages for all the popular plugins in
the proposed guide (http://doc.bazaar-vcs.org/plugins/en/) that have
external dependencies. We also need a 'meta-package' covering the same
range of things proposed for the Windows and OS X 'Bazaar Desktop'
installers/bundles and for those meta-packages to make it into (for
example) Ubuntu/Kubuntu Add/Remove.

Can someone please put their hand up and say "I'll own that and make it
happen by the karmic deadline"? Time is running out here so we need to
get the plugins packaged and uploaded Real Soon Now if we can.

BTW, if you're a plugin author, you can help the above by releasing a
sanctioned version of trunk if appropriate. For example, if it's been 6
months since x.y and trunk has a dozen fixes in it since then, this week
is a good time to package and announce x.z.

> And from everybody, improving the documentation, or
> helping Emma Jane with the web site refresh will make a difference
> too.

Right. The good thing about documentation is that almost anyone in the
community who wants to help improve it can do so - you don't need to
know the internals of Bazaar in any depth to contribute here. It's far
less exciting that fixing code or adding new features but it *does*
matter if our user survey results
(http://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm=FDeDsLzaZ0AKNEATuA0QklWayMZKGfHcrP1U4V55jAY%3d)
are any guide. "Better documentation" came 3rd on the list of #1 things
to improve (after "GUI interfaces" and "Faster network operations").

> I'd like to
> know we've got to the bottom of the upgrade bugs.

I'll be focussing on upgrades this week, including patches, fixes and doc.

> Any comments on this mail are welcome too- too long? missing something
> important?

It was great. Thanks for the communication re proposed dates in particular.

Ian C.