[OpenAFS-devel] Selecting a configuration file format for OpenAFS Services

[Simon Wilkinson]

On 16 May 2009, at 16:21, Derrick Brashear wrote:
>
> the issue from where I'm sitting is that anything we start supporting
> (command line) we end up supporting ~forever, so if it's unpleasant,
> i'd rather not start down the road at all.

I think there is an argument for being less conservative with the 1.5  
branch. Users obviously expect that items appearing in 1.4.x will be  
there for the long term (I'd argue probably not for ~forever, but at  
least until the next major release). However I don't think this needs  
to be the case with 1.5 which is, after all, the space where all of  
our visible experimentation occurs. I think we need to be free to  
release versions of 1.5.x with particular features, and then remove or  
modify them in other releases in that series.

We need to be able to make progress on integrating new work, even if  
that work isn't initially in a perfect state. I think blocking small  
features on major internal reworkings that are invariably massively  
delayed just leads to things never getting done. As I've said before,  
I believe we need to focus far more on real bread today, than on  
mythical cake tomorrow.

Simon.