[webkit-qt] What's going on with the 2.x (and 2.x.y) branch?

[Ademar Reis]

On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 1:27 PM, Andreas Kling <andreas.kling at nokia.com> wrote:
> Hey guys!
>
> This just in from http://webkit.org/b/52080
>
> Comment #13 From Benjamin Poulain 2011-02-01 10:09:31 PST (-) [reply]
> (In reply to comment #12)
>> Ademar, can you cherry-pick this to qtwebkit2.1.x? thanks!
>
> I think it is time to clarify what goes in a patch release, and what is a
> stabilization fix. IMHO, this is not a stabilization patch, it is a new
> feature. And that the root of all the problems of 2.1.x, it is not a serious
> stabilization branch, it is a just a branch.
>
> ==
>
> Let's talk about this here on the mailing list..
>
> I agree with Benjamin in the case above, this patch is an added feature and
> does not belong on a stabilization branch.

You're right: we should be very strict on what's accepted for
backporting or not. The bug is marked as "release-candidate" (not a
blocker), but it shouldn't even be there, IMO.

The rule is simple: 2.1.x gets only two kind of fixes: critical bugs
(as any minor release would get) or bugs related to html5 video/audio.
Any other kind of bug would be an exception and have to go through an
exceptional review/discussion. Preferably on this mailing list.

>
> And is qtwebkit-2.1.x even a stabilization branch? It was supposed to be 2.1
> + video, but looking at the most recent cherry-picks, there's a mixed bunch
> of changes being added: spatial navigation, contentEditable, IME, rendering
> fixes..

2.1.x is a little monster. :-) I'll reply with what I know:

Originally a minor release should contain just critical fixes and be
backward/forward compatible with other minor releases from the series,
but 2.1.x is an exception: It's actually a new major release but based
on a previous version so that we keep the binary compatibility to
release it as an update later on.

Think of it as "2.1.0 sets the API, the real useful release will be
2.1.x" (eeerrrrr, brings me memories from the infamous kde4 release).
:-P

But I'll discuss the policy with the guys responsible for the bugs and
be more pedantic on which patches are cherry-picked... there's no
reason to make things worse than they are.

> Is there a schedule for the release of 2.1?
> Is there a list of things to be done before we can release?
> What's stopping us from releasing 2.1 right now?

2.1.0 should be released in a few weeks. Since it's declared as a
"Nokia internal release, supported only on the Symbian/Meego platform,
where it'll be available as an update later on", there's no need to
rush and risk having to release a 2.1.1 just a few days later. It'll
be ready when it's ready. :-)

Nokia is working on a public roadmap so that we don't have to keep
making these same questions over and over, but right now we don't have
anything official. The only official release for all platforms is 2.0
and there is no public roadmap regarding 2.1 or 2.2 yet.

I'll let you know once we have something.

Cheers,
   - Ademar

-- 
Ademar de Souza Reis Jr. <ademar.reis at openbossa.org>
OpenBossa - Instituto Nokia de Tecnologia