release candidates and api changes
Leni
"release candidate" means in mozilla terminology.
Are there likely to be any api changes between now and 3.0 release? In
particular, I'm wondering about the addressbook api.
The reason I ask: I'd like to allow the addon I work on install into
3.0, but not until the api stabilises.
Or ... if that's a tricky question, perhaps I can ask it another way: at
what point during the release candidate phase should extension
developers change their install.rdf to make their addons install into 3.0?
Leni.
gNeandr
There is some info about TB/Addressbook rework .. like this bug:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=413260
or pages like these:
https://wiki.mozilla.org/MailNews:Address_Book_Interface_Redesign
https://wiki.mozilla.org/MailNews:Address_Book_Code_Structure
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Talk:Address_Book_Interface_Redesign
But if you look at the revision dates of those pages / bug you don't see
any recent change / update.
The newest in the "unofficial" mozillazine about "Address Book":
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird_3.0_-_New_Features_and_Changes#Address-Book_Status_for_each_Address
This page was last modified 13:45, 18 October 2009.
For me the question not only is about RC etc, but :
What is the status and the plans/time plan for the announced "Redesign
of the Address Book" and the open questions about Categories, UID/GUID,
more ..
Any core-team member comments??
G�nter
Joshua Cranmer
> Are there likely to be any api changes between now and 3.0 release? In
> particular, I'm wondering about the addressbook api.
The comm-1.9.1 (and comm-central before it) branch has been in
restricted check-in mode since shortly after b4, so only blockers and
low-risk bugs may be checked in. I can't guarantee that an API won't
change, but I highly doubt one would find a change in any API (excluding
possibly an additional function or two) excluding gloda before the 3.0
release. In particular, the address book API will almost surely not
change--the major changes came with the generification of nsIAbCard and
a few other trickling features later.
> Or ... if that's a tricky question, perhaps I can ask it another way: at
> what point during the release candidate phase should extension
> developers change their install.rdf to make their addons install into 3.0?
You could start now; by the time rc1 is released, I believe the API
change policy will be the same as in release branches.
Mark Banner
> This question might be obvious to some - but I'm not familiar with what
> "release candidate" means in mozilla terminology.
Release Candidate is pretty much what it says it is - it is a candidate
for the release build. It is sometimes (perhaps mistakenly) used as a
term for a candidate build for alpha/beta, that's not what we've got here.
In our terms release candidate is a candidate for the final Thunderbird
3 build - we expect that it is what we'll release as Thunderbird 3 but
we need to put it out for wider testing to ensure it is suitable. If we
find a big bug (or more), then we'll put out a second release candidate,
etc until we're happy with the quality.
> Are there likely to be any api changes between now and 3.0 release? In
> particular, I'm wondering about the addressbook api.
As Joshua has already said, we're not planning on change significant
APIs. The only big thing still to go in is gloda but Andrew tells me
that is unlikely to affect extensions much.
> The reason I ask: I'd like to allow the addon I work on install into
> 3.0, but not until the api stabilises.
>
> Or ... if that's a tricky question, perhaps I can ask it another way: at
> what point during the release candidate phase should extension
> developers change their install.rdf to make their addons install into 3.0?
If it was me, I would update the extension now - there's unlikely to be
major api changes and you're likely to have a lot of work to do. Follow
the status meetings and other announcements* and as RC1 ships give your
extension a quick test, then you can update the install.rdf at the same
time or just before we announce RC 1 being available.
Obviously if we do need changes between RCs there could be a couple of
API changes, but we'll really be trying to limit those as far as possible.
Standard8
* Note that in-between building & announcing RC1 we'll have our usual
period of a few days QA so that is an idea time to do a check.
Mark Banner
> What is the status and the plans/time plan for the announced "Redesign
> of the Address Book" and the open questions about Categories, UID/GUID,
> more ..
We're currently (as you probably noticed) busy trying to release
Thunderbird 3. Once Thunderbird 3 quietens down a bit, we'll be looking
at road maps etc for the next versions.
Standard8
gNeandr
For sure you remember different discussion about those subjects. It's
only about getting a perspective.
Hope all goes well with TB3 (and also with the open points, eg. the msg
header) .. but I know all of you are doing a great job!!!
Keep going!
gNeandr
Just to add: with ReminderFox next release we will have some new
features around TB 3/AB using some of the new API. It's working well
since weeks with TB3.0b4 but also with TB3.0pre.
G�nter
Philip Chee
> Just to add: with ReminderFox next release we will have some new
> features around TB 3/AB using some of the new API. It's working well
> since weeks with TB3.0b4 but also with TB3.0pre.
> G�nter
Is ReminderFox working well with SeaMonkey 2.0? I only implemented a
minimum subset of gFolderDisplay in SeaMonkey to support Lightning and
Enigmail. If there is anything missing in SeaMonkey 2.0 that ReminderFox
needs, please let me know.
Phil
--
Philip Chee <phi...@aleytys.pc.my>, <phili...@gmail.com>
http://flashblock.mozdev.org/ http://xsidebar.mozdev.org
Guard us from the she-wolf and the wolf, and guard us from the thief,
oh Night, and so be good for us to pass.
Leni
> Just to add: with ReminderFox next release we will have some new
> features around TB 3/AB using some of the new API. It's working well
> since weeks with TB3.0b4 but also with TB3.0pre.
The experience with Zindus has been similar - that the addressbook api
has been stable from tb3b4 through to the current tb3.0pre.
Leni.
Mark Banner
> Leni wrote:
>
>> This question might be obvious to some - but I'm not familiar with what
>> "release candidate" means in mozilla terminology.
>>
>> Are there likely to be any api changes between now and 3.0 release?
>
Actually Simon, we never guaranteed that with Thunderbird 3 release.
That is something that Firefox does currently promise.
I suspect in future releases we will guarantee or have a cut-off point
API changes, but this is our first release as a team and we're still
learning.
Standard8