[IPython-dev] IPython 0.11 at SciPy2011 (i.e. July)

[Fernando Perez]

Hi all,

[ sorry for the -user crosspost, but we're looking at the homestretch
of a major release so the feedback of our more adventurous users would
be vastly welcome ]

I know we've talked about it before, but now it does finally need to
happen.  We actually need to make a release, and not of the 0.10.x
codebase :)

We have both a talk and a tutorial scheduled at SciPy'11 in mid-July
around IPython, so we should really show up with a fresh-off-the-oven
0.11 with all the goodies we've been working on lately.

The last few months have seen a massive amount of activity, and I
actually think we're in pretty decent shape overall.  This is a view
of the issues tagged for 0.11 with critical priority, which I think is
realistically all we can consider tackling:

https://github.com/ipython/ipython/issues?labels=prio-critical&sort=created&direction=desc&state=open&page=1&milestone=5

Things don't look too bad, I think:

#8: it has a nasty side, but I just begged for help earlier, and
hopefully we'll figure out what's going on with Traits/Qt.  The fact
that matplotlib works perfectly with the Qt backend gives me hope
there's a way out of this one.

#66: doc updating, no problem.

#79/175: it's a lot of work, but much progress has been made recently,
so I think we'll be fine.

#340: Brian, what's your thought on this one?

#351/369: I think these are almost the same issue.  Annoying, but doable.

#378: doesn't look insurmountable.

Honestly the only thing I'm really worried about is today's discovery
of the disaster we have with Traits/Qt in #8, I think the rest is
either not too bad or major (all the config work) but well tackled at
this point.  The Qt one worries me because it's a bit of a wildcard, I
simply have no clue what's going on, despite spending most of the day
on it, reading the Qt mailing lists, stracing processes, etc.  But
perhaps (hopefully) someone more knowledgeable than me in Qt matters
can help us there, and it won't turn out to be such a big deal.

If anyone sees any issue that you think should be promoted to
0.11/critical, please say so on this thread and we'll look into it.
We can't guarantee that we'll promote them to that status (we can't
delay the release forever, and there will be other releases), but we
will certainly have a look.

At this point, anyone who can help:

- testing the git master branch in your normal usage patterns, and
reporting any problems you encounter, from simple documentation
confusions to things that don't work.
- tackling any of the above bugs with a pull request
- helping review any of our open pull requests

will earn our undying gratitude.  When we're a little closer to
release we'll put test eggs/release candidates, but even if you aren't
using git, github offers nicely updated single-click downloads as
zip/tarballs without needing git on your part, at:

https://github.com/ipython/ipython/archives/master

Anything I've missed?  Since SciPy is mid-July, I'd like to shoot for
the actual release to happen early July, so people have a chance to
download/install it before the conference.  It will give us a chance
to get useful feedback there, from which we can choose how to focus
our energy at the sprint in Austin.

Best,

f