Hi All,

Now that 6.01 is out, it seems like a good time to do a post-mortem
about the release and the release process. I spoke with John and
Victor on IRC today and we didn't really come to a consensus on
release process, as the options all had some pros and cons.

To start, for the release we observed:

1. It took us a number of builds to get it right.  This was mostly due
to  packaging issues (i.e. things were missing, things didn't install
in the right place).
2. We tagged, then started the release branch, then tagged at end.  It
seems the tag should only be at end when a release is done (more on
that in a moment).
3. We got feedback after the release of installers.  Issues with
Csound itself seem to have been mostly resolved before the installers
were issued due to users who compiling actively filing bugs/raising
issues.  Issues after the installers were released were mostly due to
things having to do with the installers.
4. In the past, trying to do a beta or release candidate phase hasn't
worked out as well as it could.  Perhaps another strategy is needed,
or we need to do the RC phase differently to get different results.

My thoughts on release process:

1. start release process by creating release branch (we are then in
state of RELEASING)
2. update versions but have RC added for release candidate
3. do builds, upload
4. request feedback from users, tell them no fixes/updates will happen
until next release, so please test/file issues now. other uses can do
their own builds for updates, or might even create their own
non-official installers.
5. on green light, remove the RC label, finish the release branch
which creates a tag.  rebuild final releases and upload. (release
state is now RELEASED as it has been tagged)

This system requires building a minimum of twice, once for RC and once
for final, and may include more if bugs pop up from the RC. At the
final released state though, the master branch would be in a state
where anyone could exactly reproduce the final build, assuming they
have the same dependencies installed on their system.

Thoughts?  I think any additional observations on what happened during
the release would be great, as well as thoughts on process
improvements.

Thanks!
steven

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