Suggestion: Preliminary release notes for RC

[matthiasbasler]

I have been doing pre-release tests for most ROS release over the last years when they were in RC stage. At this time I usually test certain software (additional to the one tested by reactosfanboy) and some real hardware. The release notes, however, are only compiled for the actual release after the tests.

For me - and possibly others - it would be useful to have something like preliminary release notes available on the testing page already during the RC stage. The main reason is that potential testers are aware of the changes without having to follow internal chats or browsing the list of PRs. Thus they can put special attention to the changed aspects, such as USB support in 0.3.13, when doing their tests. They might specifically test software utilizing these new or improved functionality.

Just to make it clear: I believe the preliminary release notes might just be some bulletpoints of the top 5 to 10 important changes and improvements in order not to cause significant overhead work. Something like (for ROS 0.4.12):

• Improved common cache
• Device power management improvements
• PXE booting
• Window snapping
• Font rendering improvements
• Intel e1000 NIC driver for use in virtual machines
• ...

[learn_more]

How about https://jira.reactos.org/issues/?jql=fi ... D%200.4.13 ?

[matthiasbasler]

Good point, but I don't think this is is feasible for the typical target audience of the release notes. It would mean to browse through ~300 issues, half of which I don't even understand technically, and it would require me to judge the importance of each of these in order to come up with the "main improvements".
Put simply, I don't see the wood for the trees in such list.

[ThFabba]

We currently have no good process for the release notes. In fact, the fact that they hadn't yet been finalized has delayed several of the most recent releases.
That is to say, we can't provide them them on time, therefore we won't be able to provide them early.

If you're interested in helping that process, by all means let us know. There is usually a draft posted somewhere that needs to be reviewed, fleshed out etc.

[gonzoMD]

Is it this what you are looking for? https://reactos.org/wiki/Community_Changelog-0.4.13

[matthiasbasler]

Is it this what you are looking for? https://reactos.org/wiki/Community_Changelog-0.4.13

Very well. That's probably the closest I can expect to get at this point. Although very technical, it gives a fairly good idea about the areas that have seen improvements. Thanks for pointing this out, gonzoMD.