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[edit] The Release Cycle

[edit] Introduction

To communicate the current state of Blender development both to the user and the developer a release cycle has been designed, which is expressed in 5 different B-Con levels, B-Con 1 through B-Con 5. The current status is always visible on the frontpage of www.blender.org. Through the status icon current release status details, including current feature projects, is available.

For the user this means a quick indication of what is going on and what to expect, but it's also important for the developers and platform/testing teams to know when to 'activate' and expect an increase of tasks.

[edit] B-Con 1: Post-release

This level is in effect right after a successful release. It's a time for developers (and the brave testing teams and release builders) to relax, catch breath and think up new ideas for the next installment. Generally not too much real activity is to be expected for this period, other than developers gathering feedback and ideas to prepare for Blender.

During this period new ideas are gradually worked into candidate release projects and existing projects might be re-evaluated if necessary. Directly after a release mostly maintenance coding can be expected, but at some point, as developers have relaxed a bit, the development pace picks up again.

[edit] B-Con 2: The activities are crystalising

When the projects for the next release have been defined, the release status is bumped to level 2. New ideas have been given form, and most of those are likely to be included into the upcoming release. No date for that new installment of Blender has been set, and depending on the complexity of projects it may push possible release dates further into the future. Most of the candidate feature projects have had time to mature in Tuhopuu, the experimental Blender branch, and have been nominated by the developers for porting to BF-Blender.

Often the goal is to have at least one smashing new feature per release, but projects may also be related more to the inner workings of Blender, ranging from code cleaning to big code reorganisations and possible restructuring of parts.

[edit] B-Con 3: Release is scheduled

With B-Con level 3 a release date has been set. If possible it'll be targetted on one or two days, but often the release is scheduled for a particular week to account for possible delays, thus giving the developers a little room to work on improving their projects.

During this stage the release projects are refined based upon feedback through testing builds and from other developers. Also new features are generally not allowed into CVS. The CVS is in a 'feature freeze'. Commits are allowed in the target projects, as well for maintenance and bugfixing. This period doesn't have to last long, as it is to make sure release projects are stable enough.

The role of the platform managers and testing teams is getting increasingly important during this stage. Everything has to compile neatly on all supported platforms, so build systems need to be working as expected. Feedback from the users through the Testing Builds forum and on the bugtrackers are now also vital for the developers to keep on improving the code they are responsible for. Testers from the testing teams are supposed to make a start with the regression suite and conduct more heavy testing, constantly reporting back to the developers.

At this stage, the Splash Screen Contest will be held to choose the splash screen image for the forthcoming release. A panel of judges will be chosen and they will run the contest as they see fit. To standardise the appearance of the splash screens, a template will be provided with the Blender Foundation logo and correct version number for the release.

The contest should be finished by B-Con 4 so the chosen splash screen can be incorporated into the new builds.

[edit] B-Con 4: Pre-release

The final stage before release has started. CVS is frozen, test builds are done on release level and the testers are pushing Blender and the install process to the limits. Only bugfixes are allowed into CVS and new cool ideas just have to wait for the next B-Con 1.

At this time the Splash Screen Contest has ended and the panel of judges has chosen the winning entry for the nearing release.

This will be generally a short period, often one week, before the scheduled release date. The users should imagine the dedicated developers working on ironing out the last wrinkles. Platform managers have to check, double-check and tripple check every building aspect, from Blender code to used libraries. Every test should at this stage be successful, and soon the moment should be at hand.

[edit] B-Con 5: Release. "On your marks, get ready, GO"

Finally, all tests have been successful, and no show-stoppers have been spotted. The release builders start their compiling machines and upload the binaries.

Last minute release notes are created, web pages are published, as well as Blender released and announced.

Everybody should prepare for a hard slashdot-episode :)

Users: download Blender, go out to the streets, share the news, celebrate, go nuts over all the cool new features. Developers: sit back and watch the user community go nuts over those cool new features.