Administrivia

This document describes a plan for a 1.0 release of the Jakarta-Commons Latka component (for the remainder of this document, simply "Latka").

As per the Jakarta/ASF guidelines, this document doesn't mean anything until accepted by the relevant committer community via a lazy majority vote (hereafter, simply "lazy majority"). Once accepted, it may be replaced by an alternative plan, again subject to lazy majority approval.

Non-binding votes (votes cast by those outside the relevant committer community) are welcome, but only binding votes are significant for decision making purposes.

Objective

The objective of the 1.0 release of Latka is to provide a stable and robust release focused on design clarity, forward compatibility, and ease of use (i.e., with the intention of providing a stable foundation for the further evolution of the Latka component).

Specifically, the 1.0 release seeks to introduce and evaluate changes based upon the following (ordered) criteria:

  • Freedom from defects (deviation from the documented or reasonably expected behavior)

  • Interface and design consistency and clarity, ease-of-use, and ease-of-extension.

  • Forward compatibility. That is, the ability to add support for features that can be reasonably predicted without "breaking" the external (and to a lesser degree, internal) interface of the component

The 1.0 release should also include:

  • Adequate documentation (including both API-level/JavaDoc documentation as well documentation suitable for use on the Jakarta-Commons site)

  • A substantial unit and functional test suite suitable for ensuring the quality and compatibility of release 1.0 and subsequent releases.

  • A clear demarcation of the "internal" and "external" interfaces within Latka, as defined in the Versioning Guidelines document

Release Manager

dIon Gillard (assuming no one else is really itching to do it)

Timeline

(All days ending at 23:59:59 GMT in case of dispute.)

  • Review Period

    Friday, March 29 - Friday, 5 April 2002

    During the Review Period specific design, functional and contract changes to Latka will be considered on the Jakarta-Commons mailing list, using the following process:

    • Any developer or committer that would like to see a specific change (or group of changes) enacted or rolled back will suggest it on the Jakarta-Commons mailing list

    • Any interested committer that opposes a given change (or group of changes) is obligated to indicate this disapproval on the list during the Review Period.

    • We will seek, but not strictly require consensus on each decision point. If consensus cannot be reached, any committer may call for a vote to resolve the issue via a lazy majority vote.

    The Review Period may be closed before 5 April 2002, given one "workday"'s notice and lazy majority approval.

    The Review Period may be extended by one week (at a time) given lazy majority approval, in case issues still need to be resolved.

  • Implementation Period

    Friday, 5 April 2002 - Friday, 12 April 2002 (assuming the Review Period is not extended)

    During this period, any remaining implementation, testing and documentation will be completed. No new features or "public" interface changes will be considered in-scope at this time (short of a lazy-majority approved revised release plan or any "showstopper" defects).

    At the end of the Implementation Period, a formal release vote will be called, subject to lazy approval.

    A formal release vote may be called before 12 April, but after the end of the Review Period, if appropriate.