[ecf-dev] Discussion: Mars simultaneous release participation

[Scott Lewis <slewis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Folks,

Since it's beginning nine years ago, ECF has participated in the annual 
Eclipse Foundation simultaneous release.    Over time, participation has 
added much value for ECF consumers, as the requirements for 
participation [1] have resulted in ECF having very reliable/predictable 
releases and higher quality via all of the associated release 
engineering (e.g. a stable and flexible build, automated testing, 
supporting multiple distribution targets, documentation, etc).

Another potential benefit of the SR is the associated 
marketing/visibility for the project.   I would argue, however, that ECF 
gets very little marketing value from the EF, and that seems to me very 
unlikely to change.

There are significant repeating costs on ECF:  i.e. meeting all of the 
requirements [1], preparing and doing reviews, submitting plans, etc., 
etc.   At this point, meeting many of these requirements have been 
nicely automated via our previous release engineering work (primarily by 
Markus K and others), but unfortunately many of them can't be automated, 
and the resources to complete these requirements (e.g. my and others' 
time) are becoming more restricted.

Questions to discuss:

1) Do people see continued value to ECF committers/contributors and 
consumers in participation in the SR?
2) If your answer is yes:  are you willing to provide resources (i.e. 
committer and/or contributor time) to make this happen?

The time driver for this discussion is that all participating projects 
must declare their intention to participate by Mars M4, which this year 
is December 12.   I'm starting this discussion early so that everyone in 
the community that wishes may provide input to the decision.

Thanks,

Scott

[1] https://wiki.eclipse.org/SimRel/Simultaneous_Release_Requirements
[2] 
https://wiki.eclipse.org/SimRel/Simultaneous_Release_Requirements#State_intent_early_.28M4.29