When to branch off 2.9 (was: Re: 2.8.7 and 2.9 release plan)

[Friedrich W. H. Kossebau]

Am Montag, 24. November 2014, 00:50:18 schrieb Jaroslaw Staniek:
> How about keeping the "master always stable" motto and porting in a branch?
> Cherry picking the results once they are stable?

"Master always stable" is a good point, and I subscribe to that.

But: I would argue that with the port to a new platform (which I consider 
qt5/kf5) there is an exception. Because "master" rules. Any new stuff usually 
has to make sure it does not break stuff in "master", not the other way 
around. But the port is not just a new feature, which simply has to be 
improved until it is regression free. The port is the new "master". And all 
other code has to make sure it integrates with that.

Any commits to master while the port is going on will only complicate things, 
because they have to be integrated into the ported code as well, which will be 
more work due to all the changed code lines in the port.

So to get the port done as quickly and clean as possible, I would vote for a 
complete freeze of master, until the port is done (which would be roughly a 
month I hope). And if master is frozen anyway, the port could also be directly 
done there.

Cheers
Friedrich