[python-committers] 3.6 branch now open only for 3.6.0 release critical fixes and doc updates!

[R. David Murray]

On Tue, 22 Nov 2016 13:47:35 -0500, Ned Deily <nad at python.org> wrote:
> On Nov 22, 2016, at 12:59, Brett Cannon <brett at python.org> wrote:
> > I think for me what made everything click was realizing that we used
> > to say "until rc1 is cut, treat it as the beta phase", while Ned is
> > saying "since b4 is the last beta, we are now working towards the
> > RC". I actually think Ned's approach is mentally more consistent as
> > we are always working towards the next release which should specify
> > the commit rules, while historically we have worked as if the *last*
> > release dictated the commit rules *unless* it was for the final
> > release.
> 
> Yes, thanks, Brett!  That is indeed my way of thinking about the
> release and I think it is also consistent with how we describe the
> Release Candidate stage in the Developer's Guide.

OK, fair enough.  It's a change in our development style, but a
reasonable one.  I (and Victor I presume) were fooled by the fact that
it is a change, but it wasn't obvious that it was.

If we wish to use this going forward (and I think that would be
reasonable), then we should document it.

Being who we are (precisionist programmers), the inconsistency between
"beta release cuts off features" and "last beta before RC cuts off
non-release-critical fixes" does produce some cognitive dissonance.
I've seen the RC described as "the first beta that might be turned into
the production release", and if you think of it that way it makes it
easier to remember that we're restricting commits in order to produce that
"special beta".  That is probably better, conceptually, than producing
an RC that we fully expect will require release-critical bug fixes because
we just committed a bunch of non-release-critical bug fixes, just
so cutoff-when-the-name-changes stays consistent.

--David