Re: Release cycle length

Peter Eisentraut wrote:

>Marc G. Fournier writes:
>
>
>>Right now, I believe we are looking at an April 1st beta, and a May 1st
>>related ... those are, as always, *tentative* dates that will become more
>>fine-tuned as those dates become nearer ...
>>
>>
>
>OK, here start the problems. Development already started, so April 1st is
>already 5 months development. Add 1 month because no one is willing to
>hold people to these dates. So that's 6 months. Then for 6 months of
>development, you need at least 2 months of beta. So we're already in the
>middle of July, everyone is on vacation, and we'll easily reach the 9
>months -- instead of 6.
>
>
Do you think that 2 months for beta is realistic? Tom announced feature
freeze on July 1.
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2003-07/msg00040.php

So 7.4 took about 4.5 months to get from feature freeze to release. I
think feature freeze is the important date that developers of new
features need to concern themselves with.

I agree with Peter's other comment, that the longer the development
cycle, the longer the beta / bug shakeout period, perhaps a shorter dev
cycle would yield a shorter beta period, but perhaps it would also
result in a less solid release.