Is Joomla! 1.5 RC3 really a release candidate?
I was really surprised not only find out that Joomla! 1.5 is going through a third release candidate, but will likely be followed with more release candidates. In most projects, the release canddate is a nearly-done final product where the only thing left is to make sure all the i's are dotted and all the t's are crossed. Not so with Joomla! 1.5.
Johan Janssens's writes in his post, Is Joomla! 1.5 RC3 really a release candidate?:
In the last two weeks after the release of RC3 I have seen this question popping up on forums and mailing lists. I have seen complaints about RC3 being more of a break in development then a real release candidate. Some people seem to feel that we are still adding features and making functionality changes.
In this post I will try to give, in all honesty and openness, a status update on development and provide an answer to this question.
You can read the rest of the post yourself. One quick summary for Johan's post would be, "Joomla is experiencing growing pains". Sometimes it's difficult for us to remember that while the original codebase for Joomla! has been around for awhile, the project itself is quite young.
Though, you have to admit, the number of Joomla! 1.5 release candidates does make it appear that the software is actually at beta level and not RC. Perhaps we'll be seeing a Joomla! 1.5 Final1 and Joomla! 1.5 Final2 then finally a Joomla! 1.5 Gold? That's likely not to happen, but I know it becomes a user's fear when they're not sure whether the software they're using is really stable or not. I wonder what all the Joomla! documentation writers are thinking right now?
Joomla! v 1.5
I use Joomla! v 1.5 for several production websites, and those websites hum like a family of honey bees.
The reason I participate with open source is because it offers access to many who do not have the finances for a web presence and because it restores choice and control for all of us who have found ourselves trapped into proprietary vendor solutions.
Joomla! and Drupal are different in many ways. It is not uncommon to build an entire website using only Joomla! core, for example. In part, that and the sample content are why you'll see a big difference in size of core. To build a Drupal website, there are several contributed modules that must be in place before a site can be built.
Essentially three people, Johan Janssens, Louis Landry, and Andrew Eddie, developed Joomla! v 1.5 core. It is a completely refactored MVC application architecture using OOP. Bear in mind, that is OOP that supports PHP 4, too. They have also worked to ensure backwards compatiability so that extensions and templates work from the earlier code base and provided for multi-lingual capabilities.
No small task. Thankfully, one that won't have to be done, again, either.
Drupal is talking about the need to go to OOPs with v 7, slated for next summer. Working that thru a smaller core base will be helpful. Offering backwards compatiability and integrating it into critical contributed modules will intensify efforts required.
But, the biggest strength that Drupal has is the community of free software developers and the collaborative working relationship of the group. Joomla! is building that community of contributors and many of us look to Drupal from time to time, in admiration and with hope that our own community will mature in the same way.
IMO, that's what really matters. The naming of phases and the actual numbering schemes are just that - names and symbols - but, a strengthening community of contributors, freely offering their work, does take awhile to build.
Now, lots of us are eagerly awaiting phpBB3's final release. On October 15, RC7 was announced only two days after RC6. It contains fixes from an external security audit performed by SektionEins. As you no doubt remember, phpBB was this year's SourceForge - Best project for communications recipient. Five years in the making, my friend! Olympus has been aging like fine wine since 2002.
I do not believe there is a "usual" or "normal" or "proper" way to share free software with the world, except to put one foot in front of the other, day after day after day, working hard until it's ready. The Joomla! core developers are doing just that and there is nothing more we could ever ask for than that.
With respect,
Amy :)
http://OpenSourceCommunity.org
PS - did you know your CAPTCHA is on for those of us logged on?
Clarification Not Criticism
Hopefully, my post wasn't seen as criticism toward the Joomla! community. My whole point was that because Joomla! is relatively new, both developers and users are trying to figure out how best to define what makes a Joomla! a beta, public release, and final product. Since Joomla 1.0.0 was a rebranded (and improved) release of Mambo 4.5.2.3 we really didn't get to see a full cradle-to-grave development cycle like we're seeing in Joomla 1.5. I intentionally made sure I didn't compare Joomla! with other open source projects because each community has their own evolving style for how they deal with versioning.
Amy is right in that "naming of phases and the actual numbering schemes are just that - names and symbols" and each project will define them differently. Whatever version scheme is used, I still think it is important for developers and users of a particular CMS to understand what those names and symbols represent. When I see beta, or release candidate, or final that should tell me something, shouldn't it? Joomla!'s own developers seem to recognize the importance in defining the versioning as Johan Janssens writes:
So yes I agree that the RC’s are not what one would call a typical RC. Personally I would rather have seen us release a beta 3 and maybe even beta 4, it could have solved this perception problem we are dealing with. The development working group has decided otherwise. Did we make a mistake ? Personally I don’t think so, at the time this decision was made it looked like the right step to take...
...I do not agree though that we are adding functionality to 1.5, but I can understand that perception exists. New functionality that wasn’t directly related to a bug report hasn’t been added to 1.5 since we hit the RC phase...
...For the coming weeks an months I expect us to release RC’s using a release early, release often strategy. With intervals of about 4/5 weeks. How many RC’s it will take us to get 1.5 stable, I don’t know and to be honest I don’t care. As long as the next RC is more stable as the previous one and so on I’m confident we will get there.
Johan Janssens has spelled it out for those that want to know...for the Joomla! project (at least with 1.5) you can expect a Joomla! 1.5 RC to be defined as such:
So what others might see as criticism toward the Joomla! core developers, other (including myself) will see it as part of the process for better clarification.
Amy, now that you mentioned it...would you see it a benefit or not to increase the number of core developers working on Joomla!? Do you foresee Joomla! making any changes in who participates in the core development? Inquiring minds want to know!
"Hopefully, my post wasn't
HEAVENS NO!!!! Bryan, you are a tireless supporter of all that is open source. :)
Certainly increasing contributors is the goal of any open source project. Joomla! v 1.5 is well developed and that's easier to do with a small group of people building that initial core, collaborating very closely. The model is in place. As others study it and learn from it, they are able to adapt it and fix it and that's how you are seing the development enrollment grow, even today.
Look at Linus and the core - he and a few others manage that nucleus. There are a kabillion downstream contributors. (Yes, I counted - one kabillion, no more, no less.)
Over the past year, several noteworthy bugsmashers and subject matter experts have already been asked to join. Recently, some of the SOC students were invited in after noteworthy performance. Typically, those who contribute consistently in areas of need - have abilty to get along well with others and motivate the team - get asked onboard.
Keep in mind another key difference between the two projects, though, and I think this to be an important one. The Drupal core is handled by three people with a couple of others taking care of maintenance core (word choice is probably not correct.) The army of Drupal developers are maintainers of contributed modules. In Joomla!, that is Extensions library where there well are over 2,000 extensions listed. The difference is in how they collaborate. Drupal's pieces are more framework level where many of Joomla!'s extensions tend to be more independent and self-contained.
I believe the differences in modules/extensions has to do with the GPL clarifications that Joomla! went through this year. Drupal developers have worked more closely and produced more "snap together" architectural pieces because the typical business model was on site development and developers benefited more directly from shared code development. I suspect Joomla! will grow a middle teir of extensions more like Drupals architectural pieces - and already, Drupal is building more fully functioning pieces. We are all pointed in the same direction, with different strategies and experiences guiding the projects.
So, back to the benefit to increase core developers - again, they are increasing the ranks. But, more importantly, the idea is to generate more free software that works well together that people can take and assemble powerful sites with. There are a number of ways to get there, but in the end, whether the strategy works or not depends on whether or not people can easily build great websites using the result.
In that sense, Joomla! and Drupal are the same - the answer has been and will continue to be YES. The projects are contributing to the world in a positive way.
lol! Bryan - I am a community member. I participate in the project very actively and observe and comment on my perspections of what's going on. Clearly, most would label me a supporter and champion of the project. But, I wear no badge and am not official in anyway. My comments must always be taken as my opinion, only. ;)
Thanks! Amy :)
http://OpenSourceCommunity.org
Thank you for your posts
Thank you Amy for your posts. Would you mind sharing the URL's of your 1.5 production websites with me? I am working on a 1.5 site of my own, but am concerned about instability. You've given me hope that I can continue with 1.5.
I agree with Amy and besides
I agree with Amy and besides the funny thing is people still don't know half of Joomla's power and flexibility, yet they demand for Joomla 1.5; that's not going to solve their problems, the key is learning the system or how to work efficiently with the framework. I have audited code for many "so called" professional Joomla developers and you know what they suck. I remember a specific case of Vechile Tracking System where the codebase was as big as 200kb. After doing the whole thing right and adding ten time more functionality and features, the codebase was 80KB.