[TYPO3-dev] RFC: Change roadmap for 4.5 and 5.0

[Michael Scharkow]

Patrick Gaumond wrote:
> I had the same idea months ago and even talk to Kasper about it last 
> month. My logic in short (no real numbers) was that taking 6 months to 
> get a new BE build on top of 4.0 would take another 3 months to "port" 
> it to 5.0 for a total of 9 months for the BE effort instead fo maybe 7 
> months if we code directly to 5.0.

I think the estimation of 6 months for a whole usability overhaul 
(including the FE is necessary as well) is rather optimistic. And 
porting 'back' the changes to 5.0 even more so if we do more than 
cosmetic changes.

> But Kasper argued that 5.0 would probably take too long to get to the 
> door and TYPO3 as a group effort is still too new to bypass the 4.5 
> release.

But *why* should we stoically stick to the self-imposed release 
schedule? We're not Microsoft promising the oh-so-great Vista release 
for 2005,6,7. Such milestone promises sound to me like marketing 
bubbles, we didn't even ship 4.0 in time, although the roadmap was 
released only shortly before the 'final' phase.

We have a great product *now*, with thousands of working extensions, and 
the promise to maintain this product for half a decade. Isn't that 
something to brag with? Do we need future promises instead of working code?

> I'm not trying to speak for Kasper but considering the new baby, it 
> could takes few days before he join the discussion...

I hope I don't step on anyone's toes with this, certainly not Kasper's 
and Robert's. I just wanted to discuss things *before* work begins.

> Maybe we will have to consider 4.5 with a BE 1.5 and finally get BE 2.0 
> for TYPO3 5.0...

Remember corporate people expect stability from those big releases, and 
will be very disappointed if a lot from 4.5 is changed again in 5.0

> Are people ready to wait 2 years to get a better BE? I don't think so.

Right. Are people ready to wait 2 years for better performance, less 
code, better architecture? I don't think so either.

Robert clarified today that he intends to start 4.5 and 5.0 development 
separately, but simultaneously now, although I don't understand how that 
answers the question of backwards-compatibility for 4.5 or where we get 
two development crews from ;)

If we start the unified development of 4.5/5.0 now, why not see how far 
we get by improving the core and sysexts step by step, both UI and 
code-wise. Given the high standards of reliability in CVS, we can 
release a snapshot anytime between now and the 5.0 release. We then get 
feedback both on usability and API, improve stuff, release again, until 
we have something that can be released as 5.0

With this, everybody will be happy who is interested in new TYPO3 
releases: The people waiting for better UI and the devs waiting for 
better code. Only the marketing people may be disappointed as there's no 
regular big-bang release to be celebrated.

Those who are more conservative and rely on a stable TYPO3 4.0 will also 
be happy, as this branch will rock-stable really soon.

Greetings,
Michael