Target Date

[JWPlatt]

Yes, we have one now. The preliminary target date is the week of March 28, 2011 - this year folks.

Some of us are still busy; some have time away scheduled in early April, include Mac 4/1, myself 4/1 to 4/3, and rarified a little later. But we could use a good target.

If anyone would like to freak out, please feel free and we can adjust.

What's actually going to happen is Mark will "tell Rand he needs to shoot for that (even if we don't make that)."

<insert panic scene from Chicken Run>

Um, comments?

[Mac_Fife]

I was going to paste in a Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy image here, but decided it was just too obvious.

Well, it always seemed likely that Cyan would prefer to make any announcement in the early part of the week: Announcing at the end of a week and then leaving things to develop over a weekend didn't seem likely, so JW being out over a weekend doesn't seem like it'd be a big problem, provided it's not the weekend immediately preceding launch. So by that measure, I'd prefer the week of 3/28 to that of 4/4. I'm usually busy on Mondays, but if 3/28 becomes a firm date then I'll excuse myself from that week's conference call

I know I've got a few things to do, but they seem eminently achievable in that time frame. My perception is that everyone else is pretty close to being ready too. Rarified seems to have the Foundry pretty well sorted as far as I can see - The big potential spanner in the works (or wrench in the works for you guys in the US) would be his ISP deciding to do something drastic around launch time. MOSS, as a'moaca' says "already builds and runs", so unless I misunderstand then it sounds like it just* needs any known bugs logged, some documentation prepared for the wiki (or wherever) and pushed to a repo.
(* "just" - typical management oversimplification)

There are a few essential web pages we're missing right now: JW and I were discussing some kind of "hub" page for new visitors who just want to find where they can get the code, and I still need to finish writing up the Certificate Installation instructions, and close out my edits to the Development menu page. Then there's the FAQ we discussed - that's a "living document" so it can develop over time and doesn't need to be "complete" at launch. Which leaves the issue of introducing "Mini" the mascot, and that now sounds like it needs to happen next week.

[rarified]

My vote is for "The Scream" by Munch, but I'm only one

So... JW, do you have any idea how the announcement will play out on the 28th? An in-cavern event or just a posting? Time-of-day? I expect to play the role of one of Niven's Moties, squirting goo all over things as they break in real time to fix 'em.

_R

[JWPlatt]

The only thing I am expecting from Cyan is an announcement to be posted on MOUL, which we will have in advance after Rand writes it. They seem to favor post-lunch postings for things like that, giving time for prep in the morning. We can follow their lead and do what we wish (what do we wish?). Beyond that, I know of nothing other than a box of tutu skirts that just arrived for all of us.

Maybe some of us could have an Uru client window open in MOULa and hang out in the OpenUru.org hood?

[a'moaca']

Um, I don't know... Let me see how it goes this weekend. I'll have a better idea then.

MOSS built and ran three years ago, but I don't think you would have called it ready to release after "just" documenting things. I have no more server development on the plate, but I still have a lot to do. (Related note: anyone want to write a few sh scripts for me? I'm so slow with sh.) And I have many prior, regular commitments, and in many ways MOSS is just like my job, so I can't always stand to work on it every night.

I'm not going to skip these last things. What I wanted in this release was decided long before this whole bundling with CWE thing came up and I'm sticking to it. I'm almost there, and I want to be done more than any of you want me to be done, so I will get there soon. Almost certainly even before March 28. But not by very much! (And if not, I'm sorry, I'm going to have to stop and do my taxes.)

But what about all this other stuff? What's on JW's to-do list? I have a few more things to add. Were we planning to set up MOSS in Hudson before release, or no? I think people would be much more excited if they can download stuff to play with instead of having to wait for someone to fix/finish it first. So I thought we would need some time between when I think I'll be happy to upload to the repository and March 28. But I don't know how quickly everything could get hooked up. Not to mention it's still not clear what the target is for the CWE client.



- a'moaca'

[rarified]

(Related note: anyone want to write a few sh scripts for me? I'm so slow with sh.)

Tell me what you need and I can let you know how much I can help. I probably can maneuver my way around a shell script...

_R

[a'moaca']

(Related note: anyone want to write a few sh scripts for me? I'm so slow with sh.)

Tell me what you need and I can let you know how much I can help. I probably can maneuver my way around a shell script...

_R

Okay, thanks for taking a look. sh is so hard to work with. I'll write up what they need to do and there will be some files you need, so I'll send a PM. Later today. Maybe much later, heh.

[JWPlatt]

I'm not going to skip these last things..

Absolutely. Please take the time you need. If anyone needs time, I don't think Cyan will have any issue with that. It's just a date, and it's possible Rand won't meet it.

What's on JW's to-do list? I have a few more things to add.

To my supposed list? Please do! I have on it a bunch of things that are done, a bunch that aren't. I worked on organizing and making it presentable today. It still won't be pretty, but I hope to finish and post it tomorrow. Then I hope to create as many issues from it as worthwhile on JIRA.

Were we planning to set up MOSS in Hudson before release, or no?

Yes, hope so! rarified's always been eager to put Hudson/Jenkins to work. I'll make sure it's on my list as a blocker. Let's see if rarified agrees.

I think people would be much more excited if they can download stuff

Surely. But a bunch of people will be excited just to download and inspect the code. That could entertain some of them for quite some time.

...it's still not clear what the target is for the CWE client.

The target for the CWE client, in my opinion, is to make it as buildable as possible - whatever that is. Originally, I only expected to let the community fill in the holes. As Mac_Fife said, open source projects generally don't come out of the gate all finished. It's unlikely we'll be fighting any expectations, though it would be good to include the reasons for the holes in some historical write-up to be included on the project wiki page(s). I never dreamed the client would be executable, but if rarified and cjkelly1 do some sort of wizardry on it, cool, and very impressive.

[Mac_Fife]

Maybe some of us could have an Uru client window open in MOULa and hang out in the OpenUru.org hood?

Or is anyone going to hang out on the OpenUru IRC?

Will any of us have time for any of that kind of thing - I can see a lot of wiki page/forum posting needing done in pretty short order to "open the door"?

Maybe the home page URL should temporarily redirect to a "We are currently updating the website" page (with no menu) on the launch morning while we get the underlying content revised?

[JWPlatt]

I would rather suggest not disabling anything, but do such things as the wiki updates from the leaves first. i.e., Create the new pages as orphans, then update existing pages with all the prepared text, then plug in the news flash with the root links on the Main Page last. I'll be doing some forum work in the same manner - the last step immediately post-announcement is making these forums visible.