Re: [Xen-devel] Xen 4.3 development update

["Jan Beulich" <JBeulich@xxxxxxxx>]

>>> On 20.09.12 at 13:17, George Dunlap <George.Dunlap@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 8:03 AM, Jan Beulich <JBeulich@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>> On 19.09.12 at 18:58, George Dunlap <George.Dunlap@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>> = Timeline =
>>>
>>> We are planning on a 9-month release cycle.  Based on that, below are
>>> our estimated dates:
>>> * Feature Freeze: 1 March, 2013
>>> * First RC: 15 April 2013
>>> * Release: 1 June 2013
>>
>> While it's only slightly over two weeks - didn't we agree to count
>> from the release date (rather than the intended one)?
> 
> So we did.  And if we actually do 6 weeks for each milestone, that gives us:
> 
> * Feature Freeze: 25 March 2013
> * First RC: 6 May 2013
> * Release: 17 June 2013
> 
> Sound reasonable?

Absolutely.

>>> * Persistent grants
>>>   owner: @citrix
>>>   status: ?
>>
>> Isn't that a guest side only thing (i.e. not really to be tracked
>> here)? Or does that mean migrating active grants?
> 
> It is a bit funny to have Linux-side stuff tracked here, since it has
> its own release schedule; but there's not really a better place to
> track it.  For both a "look at the great stuff happening" aspect, and
> a "what needs to be done and who is going to do it when" aspect,
> having all of the various development activities in one place is an
> advantage.

Understood.

>>>   -xHCI debug port
>>
>> This one needs an owner having access to suitable hardware _and_
>> knowledge of the protocol since, other than for EHCI, there isn't
>> even a reference implementation (e.g. in Linux) to clone from. I'd
>> therefore rather consider this nice-to-have than a firm plan to have
>> such functionality.
>>
>>>   -Firewire
>>
>> Largely same here - while I'm not suffering from lack of hardware
>> (apart from - afaict - cables), I've never done anything with
>> Firewire, and hence would consider this one as well nice-to-have
>> only.
> 
> "Nice-to-have" vs "blocker" is more something that will need to be
> considered near the feature freeze.  There are a handful of things
> that the Citrix team, internally, have deemed "critical" -- that is,
> if they seem to be in danger of missing, we will divert resources in
> order to help them make 4.3; but other than those, I think basically
> all the features in this list would be "nice-to-have".
> 
> Perhaps what we really need is a way to track the probability of
> success, so that those who want a particular feature to make it in can
> take action if they need to; for example:
> * Green: Owned, and no reason to think it won't make it in
> * Yellow: At-risk; may need intervention to make it in
> * Red: High probability of failure; possibly avert-able by immediate action
> * Grey: Not owned, or something blocking; but no reason it couldn't
> make it in if someone picks it up
> * Black: Very unlikely to make it in; expected to be held off until
> next release.
> 
> So in this scheme, the xHCI and Firewire would be "grey" -- no reason
> to think they couldn't make it by the deadline, but it's blocked on
> something.
> 
> Or, maybe that's more than we need at the moment. :-)  Thoughts?

Indeed this might be more than we want/need. With my response
I just wanted to clarify that while I would like to see these two things
to happen, it's unlikely that I'm going to be able to do anything about
them for the time being (so listing them as un-owned rather than
owned by me would presumably be the better choice).

Jan


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