ROS 0.4.14 blocked by regressions ... Is this the right way?

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matthiasbasler
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ROS 0.4.14 blocked by regressions ... Is this the right way?

Post by matthiasbasler »

Hi all,

I am following the pre-release regression test pages for years and have been doing my share of testing certain OS/non-OS software for every release since a while. I noted that the test page for ROS 0.4.14 has not seen much updates over the last months. The corresponding release branch was branched in April 2020.

Since a few weeks there's this notice on the page:
The Testing will not begin until we are < 21 regressions, and the Release will be blocked until we are < 16 regressions!
I have long pondered whether this approach is doing the project any good or not, and I have come to the conclusion that it might do more harm to the project than intended. Let me outline why:

Pro strict regression limits:
  • Each release will be better than the previous one if the number of regressions does not increase. This is the obvious benefit
  • People using ROS productively can rely that nothing serious will break (Well, I hope nobody uses alpha software in production.)
  • It enforces a penalty to the team for not caring enough for regressions or avoiding them in the first place, so it might increase the quality awareness.
Contra strict regression limits:
  • My guess is we will not see any release this year this way.
  • Many people (outside the group of developers) use releases to test "the latest and greatest" features. If people realize that their release version actually reflects the state of the project (feature-wise) from a year ago, they are less likely to use the release, more likely to skip to the daily builds. Which – in my impression – makes the release pointless for many users
  • No releases also means less media coverage, less people caring about the project. Sometime the home page doesn't have news for months, which makes it look as if the project is inactive. Not the impression you want to give, do you?
  • The longer the time between two software regression test cycles, the more unnoticed regressions will pile up. If the complete software stack has not been tested for a year now, I fear the next branch to contain a multiple of regressions of the current one, making future releases even less likely. (I hope I am wrong.)
  • The project is in alpha stage. Nobody can expect a "release" to pass a certain quality gate at this stage. Were there a 1.x release I would fully agree with such strict rules.
For the reasons outlined above my personal preference is to drop the limit and have at least one release every year, no matter what.
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binarymaster
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Re: ROS 0.4.14 blocked by regressions ... Is this the right way?

Post by binarymaster »

Check out our ros-dev mailing list archive for current month:
https://reactos.org/pipermail/ros-dev/2 ... hread.html

See the "The situation with version 0.4.14" thread, developers are voting right now to decide on 0.4.14 release.
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matthiasbasler
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Re: ROS 0.4.14 blocked by regressions ... Is this the right way?

Post by matthiasbasler »

Thanks for pointing me to this thread. I was not aware of it.
ctasan
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Re: ROS 0.4.14 blocked by regressions ... Is this the right way?

Post by ctasan »

You have points for the release, it is much delayed because focus of our devs shifted to kernel works, you see. Currently known regressions are not too urgent, though. Hope more regressions will not appear with further testing.
This reminds me times between 0.3.17 and 0.4, when latter was much delayed due to shell rewrite, along with dire bug fixes.
ReactOS Community Changelogs | Admin of ReactOS Official Twitter Account | Admin of ReactOS Turkish Twitter Account @reactos_tr
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matthiasbasler
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Re: ROS 0.4.14 blocked by regressions ... Is this the right way?

Post by matthiasbasler »

Happy birthday, ROS 0.4.14 branch.

The mentioned discussion about the future of this branch on the dev mailing list seems to have resulted in no decision in March, has it? I'm just curious if I missed something...
davidknibb
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Re: ROS 0.4.14 blocked by regressions ... Is this the right way?

Post by davidknibb »

It really is a bit sad. Back in 2017/2018, Reactos was on a 3 month release cycle - and the team were proud that there were indeed 4 releases a year.
But now - they have not found it possible to maintain this momentum. I think that it is over 12 months since the last release ?
I know that we'll be told that then next release will come when it's ready, but it would be nice if the 'News' section of the forum actually had some news about progress. I don't expect miracles and understand that this is an immense project which will take a long time - but regular updates as to progress would be helpful please.
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dizt3mp3r
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Re: ROS 0.4.14 blocked by regressions ... Is this the right way?

Post by dizt3mp3r »

Pop to Mattermost and join the discussion. You will then become quite aware of what is going on.
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davidknibb
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Re: ROS 0.4.14 blocked by regressions ... Is this the right way?

Post by davidknibb »

Thanks - sorry to show my ignorance - but 'Mattermost' ?
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