[dev] Horde release cycle

[Ralf Lang]

> All of this effort is only important if Horde wants to attract external
> developers.  I see that as a hidden asset of the Horde project itself --
> there are lots of other groupware packages out there but Horde is better
> suited than most for 3rd parties who want to integrate tightly into our
> apps.  This may not be our primary objective.  If we need to be more
> concerned with Groupware features than API stability maybe we do not put
> as much effort into our BC promise.  It's a matter of priorities.
> 
> 
> /BAK/

As a mostly external developer, I want to add my thoughts on BC breaking. I 
strongly advocate BC breaks when needed (the type of thing I expect from H4.x 
-> H5 after maybe a year or two) and complete redesigns like H3->H4 only when 
you feel the old patterns really won't work any more.

The last 1-2 years asked difficult decisions for me, what's the way to go.

I had some non-public applications done and now I picked up eleusis in 
official horde repos.
 
For most of the time, H4 (git) was no viable option. Moving too fast, no 
guarantees, no release in sight, virtually no documentation or people to ask. 
On the other hand, the H3 way to do things asked a php4-ish approach and 
sometimes libraries/api's which the Horde Core developers themselves tried to 
replace already. I tricked myself around, using the latest H3 sometimes with 
components pulled from  cvs-head and /incubator/. 

I'm not complaining. The result of H4 development has been a big leap forward, 
both API wise and in applications. Also dropping PHP4 has helped a lot. On the 
other hand, I'd be glad to see more gradual changes even when breaking BC. 

I don't think customers would want to pay a migration of any custom app from 
H3 to H4 while keeping H3 as a platform is definately a dead end. 

Turning that to open source community development: I think most of the 
improvement patches geared to H3 versions which still await review would need 
more than just cosmetic changes to work in H4. Developing for the trash can 
doesn't attract casual committers. Yes, that's a bit harsh and shouldn't be 
taken too seriously. Just my thoughts.

I'm happy to see H4 coming and I'm waiting to package it for openSUSE 12. ;-)

--  
Ralf Lang
Linux Consultant / Developer

B1 Systems GmbH
Osterfeldstraße 7 / 85088 Vohburg / http://www.b1-systems.de
GF: Ralph Dehner / Unternehmenssitz: Vohburg / AG: Ingolstadt,HRB 3537