Vim 9 still under development; Kibaale Walk

[Bram Moolenaar]

Hello Vim users!

The work on Vim 9 is making progress. Most of the syntax has settled
down, but there are still a few todo items and we need to make sure
everything works well before we can launch it. You can read more about
it in the Vim9 help:
https://github.com/vim/vim/blob/master/runtime/doc/vim9.txt

It's hard to plan this, best I can say is that it still takes a few
months. Once we release it we want to stay backwards compatible again,
so as not to break your Vim 9 plugins. We better make sure we get it
right, rather than rushing it out.


About Vim's charity: In the last report I mentioned that the small
clinic in Kibaale has been turned into a small hospital. Especially
aimed at pregnant women, many babies have been born there in the past
year. The increase in services provided also means the cost of keeping
the clinic running has increased quite a lot.

To be able to keep providing the health care our partner Kuwasha is
organizing the Kibaale Walk fundraiser. Have a look at this video:
https://player.vimeo.com/video/548603566
Find out more on this page:
https://donate.kuwasha.net/kibaale2021/?where=emergbar/

Happy Vimming!


--
TIM: That is not an ordinary rabbit ... 'tis the most foul cruel and
bad-tempered thing you ever set eyes on.
ROBIN: You tit. I soiled my armour I was so scared!
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail" PYTHON (MONTY) PICTURES LTD

/// Bram Moolenaar -- Br...@Moolenaar.net -- http://www.Moolenaar.net \\\
/// \\\
\\\ sponsor Vim, vote for features -- http://www.Vim.org/sponsor/ ///
\\\ help me help AIDS victims -- http://ICCF-Holland.org ///

[Felipe Contreras]

On Monday, May 31, 2021 at 11:50:10 AM UTC-5 Bram Moolenaar wrote:

The work on Vim 9 is making progress. Most of the syntax has settled
down, but there are still a few todo items and we need to make sure
everything works well before we can launch it. You can read more about
it in the Vim9 help:
https://github.com/vim/vim/blob/master/runtime/doc/vim9.txt

It's hard to plan this, best I can say is that it still takes a few
months. Once we release it we want to stay backwards compatible again,
so as not to break your Vim 9 plugins. We better make sure we get it
right, rather than rushing it out.

Have you considered making a release candidate?

If you do want to try to get it right it's better to invite as many people as possible to make comments, and most vim developers are not subscribed to the mailing list. Making a public announcement of a release candidate will ensure many eyes will be looking at the proposal.

If you don't there's a good chance useful suggestions will come too late.

Cheers.

[Bram Moolenaar]

Felipe Contreras wrote:

> On Monday, May 31, 2021 at 11:50:10 AM UTC-5 Bram Moolenaar wrote:
>
> > The work on Vim 9 is making progress. Most of the syntax has settled
> > down, but there are still a few todo items and we need to make sure
> > everything works well before we can launch it. You can read more about
> > it in the Vim9 help:
> > https://github.com/vim/vim/blob/master/runtime/doc/vim9.txt
> >
> > It's hard to plan this, best I can say is that it still takes a few
> > months. Once we release it we want to stay backwards compatible again,
> > so as not to break your Vim 9 plugins. We better make sure we get it
> > right, rather than rushing it out.
>
> Have you considered making a release candidate?

There is a release candidate every day on github.

> If you do want to try to get it right it's better to invite as many people
> as possible to make comments, and most vim developers are not subscribed to
> the mailing list. Making a public announcement of a release candidate will
> ensure many eyes will be looking at the proposal.

You make a lot of assumptions. Anyway, most people find their way to
github and can grab the latest version. That has worked fairly well so
far.

> If you don't there's a good chance useful suggestions will come too late.

That's always a problem with "releases", people just wait until the
final release before trying it out. Every submitted change is a
release, in a way.

--
I just planted an Algebra tree. It has square roots.

[Felipe Contreras]

On Mon, May 31, 2021 at 6:02 PM Bram Moolenaar <Br...@moolenaar.net> wrote:
> Felipe Contreras wrote:
>
> > On Monday, May 31, 2021 at 11:50:10 AM UTC-5 Bram Moolenaar wrote:
> >
> > > The work on Vim 9 is making progress. Most of the syntax has settled
> > > down, but there are still a few todo items and we need to make sure
> > > everything works well before we can launch it. You can read more about
> > > it in the Vim9 help:
> > > https://github.com/vim/vim/blob/master/runtime/doc/vim9.txt
> > >
> > > It's hard to plan this, best I can say is that it still takes a few
> > > months. Once we release it we want to stay backwards compatible again,
> > > so as not to break your Vim 9 plugins. We better make sure we get it
> > > right, rather than rushing it out.
> >
> > Have you considered making a release candidate?
>
> There is a release candidate every day on github.

That's a misnomer. A release candidate is a candidate ready to be
released right now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle#Release_candidate

You are supposed to have 3 release candidates at most. If you have
1000 release candidates, then you have no release candidates.

If everything is important, then nothing is.

> > If you don't there's a good chance useful suggestions will come too late.
>
> That's always a problem with "releases", people just wait until the
> final release before trying it out. Every submitted change is a
> release, in a way.

And that's why release candidates help; it's the final warning before
the actual release.

It's signaling to the users (vim developers), try it now, or else...
And they do.

The Linux and Git projects do about 2 to 3 release candidates before
any release, and that's where most issues pop up.

Git v2.32-rc0 was released two weeks ago, many users gave it a try,
they reported issues that are still being ironed out. That's 2 months
of development from v2.31.0 to v2.32.0-rc2.

I would hope after 4.7 years of development from Vim 8 to Vim 9, users
would have more than a 23-hours notice between the last "release
candidate", and the final release, which is what they had between
v7.4.2367 and v8.0.0000.

I for one don't see any particular reason to try v8.2.2912 any more
than v8.2.2186 or v8.2.$((RANDOM % 3000)) for that matter. v9.0-rc1 on
the other hand...

Cheers.

--
Felipe Contreras