CommitFest #3 and upcoming schedule

The third CommitFest for PostgreSQL 9.3 development is now officially
active. If you have the time and interest to review one of the many
patches submitted, claim it by adding yourself as a reviewer in the
CommitFest application at
https://commitfest.postgresql.org/action/commitfest_view?id=16

Project guidelines now ask each patch submitter to review patches of the
same number and approximate complexity as they submit. If you've
submitted some items to the CommitFest, please look at the open list and
try to find something you can review.

If you want to contribute to the development of PostgreSQL and you
haven't yet reviewed any patches yet, please read
http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/CommitFest and follow the appropriate
links for information about getting started. You necessarily don't need
to be a C coder to help. We need people to test, benchmark, and check
documentation, too. If you'd like to try reviewing but are not sure
which patch you want to look at, please send me an email off-list with
your areas of interest and a summary of your skill-set; I can help you
pick one.

This CF is scheduled to run from the 15th of November to the 15th of
December. Starting now any new patches should now be submitted to the
next CF, the last one for 9.3:
https://commitfest.postgresql.org/action/commitfest_view?id=17

I just moved a more readable copy of the schedule made during the 2012
Developer's Meeting to
http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/PostgreSQL_9.3_Development_Plan to help
make some changes made in the community development process easier to
see. There are two new ideas there worth explaining as we approach the
two periods they'll occur during.

The last week of this CommitFest (December 8 to 15) will include a new
planning week. This aims to help plan what work will be done up to and
during the final CF for 9.3, starting on January 15. The idea is to
make sure large features have identified reviewers and committers, and
determine whether it seems feasible to complete them during this
release. Last year the final CommitFest for the 9.2 release included a
large number of submissions that significantly delayed moving toward
feature freeze. The planning week hopes to identify things that risk
schedule slip again and set better expectations for them. Large code
submissions that arrive later, such that they haven't already been
addressed during that planning week, are unlikely to be considered for
commit in 9.3.

The other change is for the final 9.3 CommitFest, which is adding a
"triage" focus from Feb 1–7. The idea here is to focus on the sometimes
hard decisions about whether the new features still being worked on just
needs a final push of work, or if they are simply not ready to commit yet.

There are 67 code submissions and 7 documentation patches open right now
for today's 9.3 CF#3 2012-11. That makes this large but not
unprecedented. Last year at this time there were 47 code entries open,
and the record 2012-01 CF opened with 96 submissions.

--
Greg Smith 2ndQuadrant US greg(at)2ndQuadrant(dot)com Baltimore, MD
PostgreSQL Training, Services, and 24x7 Support www.2ndQuadrant.com