Re: GNOME 2.0.x and 2.x: The Plan

[Bill Haneman <bill haneman sun com>]

On Wed, 2002-07-03 at 16:20, Jeff Waugh wrote: 
> Morning all!
> 
> Thanks again to everyone who contributed to our successful G2D release. It
> has received a truckload of praise, some great criticisms and some... less
> than helpful ones [ but the protagonists behind most of those will be all
> the more surprised when they actually install G2D ;-) ].
> 
> With that rather enormous task and all of the big freezes behind us, we can
> put out some maintenance releases and get cracking on coolnewstuff again!
> 
> After much discussion between the release team and Foundation Board reps
> (Havoc and Nat), we have prepared a timeline for 2.0.x releases and a
> proposal for the beginnings of 2.1 development. Here 'tis.

Notably missing from these lists is accessibility, which was called 
out in the GNOME Foundation announcement as a GNOME 2 feature which would be
improving over time.

I would propose that we aim to clean up keynav in 2.0.1, at the moment it's 
too broken to be usable. 

Targeting theme compliance (usability with 'accessibility' themes like
HighContrastLargePrint) would seem to be feasible in 2.0.2, provided we agree
to a couple of subtle UI changes which might be required, for instance a 
2-pixel increase in panel height may be needed to accommodate focus 
indication (also required for usable keynav).

In any case I think that if we don't put accessibility explicitly back on the 
roadmap, it's not going to happen.  The "ATK" and "at-spi" work is actually
in better shape at the moment.  GNOME 2's highly-visible problems are around 
keynav and theme compliance, which don't require special assistive 
technologies to be useful.  Keyboard navigation is the lynchpin of 
accessibility, without it GNOME can't be made usable users who are blind, 
have RSI or other mobility impairments, and is much less usable by users 
with low vision also.

regards,

Bill

> 
> 2.0.x
> -----
> 
> Much of the work for 2.0.1 was done during the freezes leading up to G2D's
> release, so our hopes and plans for a couple of aggressive point releases
> are looking very achieveable. Our main goals for 2.0.1 and 2.0.2 are:
> 
>   - Fast integration of the UI review changes
>   - General bug and performance fixes
>   - Portability fixes
>   - Translations and documenation
> 
> Here's the schedule:
> 
>        July 2002
>   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
>       1  2  3 (4) 5  6  You Are Here :-)
>    7  8  9 10 11 12 13
>   14 15 16 17 18(19)20  FREEZE: Strings & User Interface for 2.0.1 & 2.0.2
>   21 22 23 24 25(26)27  Weekly Snapshot
>   28 29 30 31
>   
>       August 2002
>   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
>                1 (2) 3  Weekly Snapshot
>    4  5  6  7  8 (9)10  RELEASE: G2D 2.0.1
>   11 12 13 14 15 16 17
>   18 19 20 21 22(23)24  Weekly Snapshot
>   25 26 27 28 29(30)31  Weekly Snapshot
>   
>      September 2002
>   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
>    1  2  3  4  5 (6) 7  RELEASE: G2D 2.0.2
>    8  9 10 11 12 13 14
>   15 16 17 18 19 20 21
>   22 23 24 25 26 27 28
>   29 30
> 
> Tarballs are due on the Monday of each release week. The initial string/ui
> freeze serves both releases - changes of this nature beyond the freeze will
> need to be confirmed by the release team. This schedule does not rule out
> further point releases if required.
> 
> 
> 2.1.x
> -----
> 
> Whilst much of the serious 2.1.x work will come after 2.0.2 and the Boston
> Summit <http://www.gnome.org/summit/>, there are lots of cool new things
> already being hacked on. This short summary of our branching plan will
> hopefully keep things sane until then (a lengthier proposal will come Real
> Soon Now).
> 
>   gnome-2-0:
> 
>     - for work on GNOME 2.0.x stuff if you need to branch for 2.1 (see HEAD)
>     - acceptable changes include bugfixes, translations, documentation and
>       ui review patches; everything else requires release team confirmation
>     - almost goes without saying, but... it should always build / work
> 
>   HEAD:
> 
>     - for work on GNOME 2.1 stuff, UI/string changes
>     - should always build / work! edible dogfood for everyone!
>     - please use a private branch for experimental stuff
> 
> Microbranches for 2-0-x (used during the 2.0.0 freeze period) should now be
> merged back into gnome-2-0 for inclusion in 2.0.x releases.
> 
> 
> All of this will be going up onto dotplan soon. Thanks,
> 
> - Jeff
> 
> -- 
>              make: *** No rule to make target `whoopee'.  Stop.             
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