[Audacity-devel] Kick The Tyres Alpha, end of August?

Discussion:

James Crook

2016-08-17 14:09:49 UTC

We currently have four P1 issues:

276 PULSE-AUDIO issues. Freeze repeatedly starting/stopping streams.
1397 Linux: Segfault saving a project containing audio.
1450 Mac: Metadata Editor cells cannot be navigated by TAB
1470 Mac: track dropdown menus and other context menus do not open.

We can't release an alpha whilst we still have P1s. My current reading
of things is that the 31st August date for a kick the tyres (ktt) alpha
is out. That actually suits me, as I can take a little longer over bug 276.

I'm also not seeing a lot of enthusiasm for the ktt plan at all. We
haven't discussed or worked out how we will get better feedback than
normal by doing it. I could simply postpone the ktt alpha until later.
My inclination though is just not to do it at all. It looks like we
can't do it on time, that it won't yield the results I originally hoped
for, and that there isn't that much enthusiasm for trying to improve our
alpha testing, at least not for this release anyway. And we do have our
hands full with many many issues to address.

The P1s are of course a bigger issue than just their impact on the ktt
alpha. We need to clear them, or we won't be able to release 2.1.3.

--James.

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Gale Andrews

2016-08-17 21:24:55 UTC

Permalink

I think we've discussed some approaches to publicising
an alpha pre-release.

Without a lot of publicity, an alpha pre-release may not
receive a lot more feedback than a "release candidate".
Feedback on RC's is minimal on Audacity Forum.

If #276 is fixed by keeping audio streams open, that
has ramifications for all platforms and is worthy of wider
testing before RC stage. We should also make a point of
asking for testing of the new 24-bit recording under Windows
DirectSound which few of us can test thoroughly.

"Fast channels" to which regular alpha "releases" are pushed
is not that uncommon an idea AFAIK, but that is probably
not for us due to limited resources. Our "fast channel" could
be just a special mailing list (I know you prefer blogs but we
could do both) where we don't make a special pre-release
as such but just flag up important (groups of) features or bug
fixes approximately every few weeks and ask for feedback.

The postings would be tied to important commits made, not
to the same point on a calendar every month.

If we wanted to make an EXE Windows Nightly at the time of
such announcements that would not be a big problem for me
but I do think a separate installation path other than
%PROGRAMFILES%\Audacity is likely preferable.

Gale

Post by James Crook
276 PULSE-AUDIO issues. Freeze repeatedly starting/stopping streams.
1397 Linux: Segfault saving a project containing audio.
1450 Mac: Metadata Editor cells cannot be navigated by TAB
1470 Mac: track dropdown menus and other context menus do not open.
We can't release an alpha whilst we still have P1s. My current reading
of things is that the 31st August date for a kick the tyres (ktt) alpha
is out. That actually suits me, as I can take a little longer over bug 276.
I'm also not seeing a lot of enthusiasm for the ktt plan at all. We
haven't discussed or worked out how we will get better feedback than
normal by doing it. I could simply postpone the ktt alpha until later.
My inclination though is just not to do it at all. It looks like we
can't do it on time, that it won't yield the results I originally hoped
for, and that there isn't that much enthusiasm for trying to improve our
alpha testing, at least not for this release anyway. And we do have our
hands full with many many issues to address.
The P1s are of course a bigger issue than just their impact on the ktt
alpha. We need to clear them, or we won't be able to release 2.1.3.
--James.
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Vaughan Johnson

2016-08-19 08:32:34 UTC

Permalink

James: "I'm also not seeing a lot of enthusiasm for the ktt plan at all. "

Maybe because as RM u announced a 6-month sched and it's now set for more
than 8 months for ktt, not even release. stuck in the mud, imo.

Despite our having agreed at AU14 and on Team@ that releases should be
every 3 months.

- Vaughan

Post by Gale Andrews
I think we've discussed some approaches to publicising
an alpha pre-release.
Without a lot of publicity, an alpha pre-release may not
receive a lot more feedback than a "release candidate".
Feedback on RC's is minimal on Audacity Forum.
If #276 is fixed by keeping audio streams open, that
has ramifications for all platforms and is worthy of wider
testing before RC stage. We should also make a point of
asking for testing of the new 24-bit recording under Windows
DirectSound which few of us can test thoroughly.
"Fast channels" to which regular alpha "releases" are pushed
is not that uncommon an idea AFAIK, but that is probably
not for us due to limited resources. Our "fast channel" could
be just a special mailing list (I know you prefer blogs but we
could do both) where we don't make a special pre-release
as such but just flag up important (groups of) features or bug
fixes approximately every few weeks and ask for feedback.
The postings would be tied to important commits made, not
to the same point on a calendar every month.
If we wanted to make an EXE Windows Nightly at the time of
such announcements that would not be a big problem for me
but I do think a separate installation path other than
%PROGRAMFILES%\Audacity is likely preferable.
Gale

276.

Post by James Crook
I'm also not seeing a lot of enthusiasm for the ktt plan at all. We
haven't discussed or worked out how we will get better feedback than
normal by doing it. I could simply postpone the ktt alpha until later.
My inclination though is just not to do it at all. It looks like we
can't do it on time, that it won't yield the results I originally hoped
for, and that there isn't that much enthusiasm for trying to improve our
alpha testing, at least not for this release anyway. And we do have our
hands full with many many issues to address.
The P1s are of course a bigger issue than just their impact on the ktt
alpha. We need to clear them, or we won't be able to release 2.1.3.
--James.
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Steve the Fiddle

2016-08-19 09:04:09 UTC

Permalink

Post by Vaughan Johnson
James: "I'm also not seeing a lot of enthusiasm for the ktt plan at all. "
Maybe because as RM u announced a 6-month sched and it's now set for more
than 8 months for ktt, not even release. stuck in the mud, imo.
every 3 months.

Perhaps you have some constructive suggestions that will help to move
us on from where we are now?

Steve

Post by Vaughan Johnson
- Vaughan

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Vaughan Johnson

2016-08-19 09:46:15 UTC

Permalink

Steve: "Perhaps you have some constructive suggestions that will help to
move
us on from where we are now?"

Perhaps, but everything I suggest gets rejected, for about the last 18
months.

I am just observing that the "schedules" that we agreed on , keep
receding. My suggestions are why I'm stuck in hot water, not mud.

Do u have some constructive suggs, bro?

Do u agree that repeatedly slipping scheds is "not good" ?

- Vaughan