Ruby's branching plan, a pic worth more than a ML thread (now with mput's explanation)

I have translated mput's explanation (see below)

Great, mput (URABE Shyouhei) just saved a slice of everybody's time by releasing this:

(lower, left-hand corner: "(we're) now here")

No need to read that ruby-core thread anymore :)

Here's my translation of the explanation that accompanied the picture (my Japanese is not too strong so I might have misunderstood something):

Ruby's hereafter

At least for the time being, there are going to be three branches, namely trunk, ruby_1_8 and ruby_1_8_5. These three branches will coexist for a while.

From now on, ruby_1_8_6, ruby_1_8_7, ruby_1_8_8 and ruby_1_8_9 will likely be branched from ruby_1_8 (but it's not sure we will go up to 1.8.9). These branches, as well as ruby_1_8_5, will probably be abandoned progressively in the future under some conditions; for example, ruby_1_8_N would be abandoned after ruby_1_8_(N+2) is made. Also, due to technical limitations, a branch would be abandoned if we reached 1.8.N.4999*1. Moreover, nothing has been decided regarding what will happen to the ruby_1_8 branch after ruby_1_8_9.

1.9.1, based on trunk, will be released in 2007, aiming at a Christmas release. If no paradigm shift occurs before that time, the ruby_1_9 and ruby_1_9_1 branches will be managed like 1.8.

The above-mentioned policies can be summarized graphically as shown in the schematic below. Exemplifying the above (N+2) deprecation policy, there are at most 7 live branches at a time, of which 4 are maintenance branches, only one, trunk, is so to speak the "development" branch, and two are difficult to define*2. There are still lots of things to be decided in full, such as:

• who will maintain the branches that will be created from now on,
• whether a branch should be cut before the preview or after,
• how the responsibilities from the branch manager will be relayed when a new branch is made

But wait! - Daniel Berger (2006-12-04 (Mon) 18:27:44)

What happened to 1.8.5p3 ????

:-P

The bit I can't read? - hgs (2006-12-05 (Tue) 03:21:37)

Anyone have a translation for the Japanese text under the curly arrow? Or is that URABE Shyouhei's signature? (With an exclamation mark? I doubt it.) Thank you.

mfp 2006-12-05 (Tue) 04:55:00

(lower, left-hand corner: "(we're) now here")

("ima koko")

hgs 2006-12-05 (Tue) 08:25:50

Thank you.

hgs 2006-12-05 (Tue) 09:08:39

Sorry about the double post: usual network troubles....

mfp 2006-12-05 (Tue) 09:35:47

nah, the double post never happened, np :)