[Libreoffice] Minutes of the tech. steering call

[Jan Holesovsky]

Present: Norbert, Rainer, David, Kendy, Thorsten, Francois, Cedric,
Petr, Caolan, Matus

* Action Items:

        + Easy Hacks - completion / fixing (Bjoern)
        + get SmartArt into master as an experimental feature (Thorsten)
        * implement vertical text with Cairo (Caolan)
        + review Norbert's updated C app (Kendy, Tor)
        + manual for nightlies (Rainer)
        * split the m5 and filename when downloading (Caolan)
        * fall-back to libreoffice server when package unavailable
          (Petr)
        * add daily-builds related ideas to wiki (Rainer)
                * better cleanup rules on the server
                * on-line updates for QA for dailies

* Finished Action Items:

        + remove old non-cairo cases (Caolan)

                * linking to cairo always
                * need to implement vertical text with cairo

        + contact / discuss with the documentation team to
          find owners for help bugs (Rainer)

                * no longer a problem, David and Sophie will handle that

        + communicate more minimal QA requirements for each 3.3.x
          release (Petr)

                * discussed with Yifan, he's investigating the
                  possibilities

        + check out nightlies, and encourage others to use (Rainer)

                * unique build identifier DONE
                * new version picker in Bugzilla DONE
                * write a manual - contacted several poeple
                * Norbert suggests better cleanup rules on the server

        + review Norbert's C app ASAP (Kendy, Tor)

                * Norbert has a plan B using git fast-export and
                  fast-import, it reduced the time from 36hrs to
                  30 minutes! :-)

* Review Action Items
* conference paper submission brainstorming (Michael)
        + http://conference.libreoffice.org/submit-your-paper/
        * postponed to the next week

* misc technical / process decisions
        * include an internal gmake ? (Michael)
        
                * Norbert did a patch for debugging gmake
                * Michael has a performance improvement patch
                * should we have a libs-extern version?
                        * risk of dmake-like result
                * Norbert suggests to have it, but outside of the tree,
                  and tinderbox _never_ use that
                        * libreoffice/contrib/dev-tools?
                * Petr is in favor of having it in bootstrap, disabled
                  by default
                * consensus: dev-tools, it should be kept separate

        * string fixing in 3.4.1 branch ... (Korrawit)

                * keep the string freeze, or can we fix strings if they
                  are source of the problem?
                * it seems that l10n people do not have a big issue with
                  fixing an string when it is really occasional

                * consensus: only fixing wrong, misleading strings
                  allowed
                        * no rewording
                        * no fixing typos
        
        * gettext - should we use it everywhere (Andras)

                * no Bjoern - need him for the discussion
                * Andras continued evaluating the patch so far
                * investigating possibility to translate the binary
                  resources using .po files (instead of using .mo files)
                        * positive: no impact on performance, nor size
                        * negative: depends on the .res (build
                          dependency), custom tool (that parses .res,
                          and saves it again)

        * enable on-line updates for QA for dailies ... (Kendy)

                * Rainer will add it to the daily build testing ideas
                * let's shift the decision when we have more experience
                  with testing dailies
                * problem to identify the exact tinderbox that did the
                  build

        * central mirroring of source downloads ? (Michael)

                * numbertext.org down, etc.
                * at the moment the tarballs have to have special name
                * we could split the md5 from the filename, and allow
                  downloads from sourceforge, debian, etc. directly
                        * AI Caolan
                * we should have a copy of each file that is needed
                        * fallback to our pages, script downloads our
                          version when the original site is unavailable
                        * AI Petr

* library merging plan / progress (Matus)
        * next week

* Releng bits (Petr)
        + 3.4.1 / 3.4.2 release status

        * 3.4.1 had a regression
                * most Linux users affected
                * tagged RC3 on Friday
                * minimal change, just disabling a patch
                * first time this happened

        * 3.4.2
                * only following week for fixing with 1 review!
                * fix more!!! :-)

* GSoC (Cedric)

        * next week we will build master with students' work
        * please make sure that you / the students commit their work
                * before Thursday!
                * if too dangerous, consider the 'experimental' setting