[horde] [dev] Horde 6 vs. Horde 5.3

[Jan Schneider]

This discussion is actually better taking place on the horde mailing  
list, since we want feedback from our community too, so moving it there.

Zitat von Michael J Rubinsky <mrubinsk at horde.org>:

> Quoting Jan Schneider <jan at horde.org>:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> since we have been asked recently when to expect Horde 6, and what  
>> could be done to speed up its release, I'd like to discuss an  
>> alternative option to release Horde 5.3 first.
>>
>> Many new features have gone into master since the Horde 5.2  
>> release, few of them sponsored by clients or contributed by the  
>> community. The expectation to see those features in a stable  
>> release within a foreseeable timeframe is more than justified.
>>
>> We could speed up the Horde 6 release by additional sponsoring, but  
>> it's not only a matter of money, but also a matter of developer  
>> resources. With Michael and me being the only remaining active core  
>> developers at the moment, we rather lack developer time. Especially  
>> for core development like infrastructure stuff, namespace  
>> refactoring etc. that are not easy for contributors to jump in.
>>
>> AFAIK we don't have any BC breaks in master yet, at least none that  
>> couldn't be solved with bumped dependencies. So doing a 5.3 release  
>> should work. Michael, please correct me if I'm missing something.
>>
>> The flipside is, that:
>> - Horde 6 will delay even further
>> - we won't be able to do any refactoring, e.g. switching to namespaces
>> - we won't have a repository split that would make the libraries  
>> more attractive, e.g. by being available via composer/packagist and  
>> thus attracting external developers
>> - we won't be able to do long-anticipated BC breaks that currently  
>> hinder some development
>>
>> The discussion is open.
>
> I actually had a similar email in my drafts folder for a while now,  
> trying to compose the argument to do this or a "quick" Horde 6  
> release as-is - without the repo split.
>
> All in all, I'm mostly for it, with the following concerns:
>
> IMP in master is already labeled as 7 (not that this can't be  
> changed). There is a slight API change in IMP, but from what I  
> understand from Michael S.  the data that is now no longer available  
> isn't data ever meant for public consumption anyway (though it IS  
> still a BC break). To my knowledge the only Horde code that had used  
> this bit of information is ActiveSync, but it was refactored to use  
> the new data anyway.
>
> Then there is the fact that the basic and minimal views were  
> completely removed in IMP and this might be too big a change to  
> include in a point release.
>
> A point release will definitely hold up the work needed to get Horde  
> 6 rolling. The need to support the versions we need to, plus the  
> lack of time will hold up the repo split.
>
> My biggest gripe would be the delay in being able to start  
> ActiveSync refactoring. There are a lot of things that need to be  
> changed to make it more attractive to other developers. This might  
> be a blessing in disguise though, since it IS so much work, getting  
> an interim point release out now would prevent my refactoring from  
> holding up any major release.
>
> All that being said, I think the need to get Kronolith out, with the  
> oft-requested fixes for scheduling, probably trumps all other  
> concerns at this point, so I would say lets do the 5.3 release, with  
> the understanding that nothing new gets added until the repo split  
> happens.


-- 
Jan Schneider
The Horde Project
http://www.horde.org/