bioperl announcement

gistfile1.txt

All,

Lincoln needs a new BioPerl release to CPAN ASAP to coordinate with the latest
GBrowse2 release. The latest GBrowse2 requires v BioPerl 1.0069, which is what
we're using on the master branch to distinguish from the 1.6 branch version (the
master branch version meant to designate 'just prior to 1.7'). However, we were
planning on designating the next release as 1.6.2 (or, 1.006002), which will not
match with GBrowse's requirements.

Instead of asking Lincoln to change GBrowse to reflect that, and b/c this
release may be the last one for the 1.6.x series prior to some major work on
core this summer, I suggest we go ahead and release the next version as soon as
possible and keep the version as 1.0069. There is very little difference between
what is in the 1.6.2 branch and master anyway, and (if things go well) we're
planning on a major restructuring of BioPerl over the summer that could
effectively be the next major version of BioPerl.

A few things:

1) I am requesting that any work beyond simple doc fixes or small code changes
be carried out on a branch of master. Most of the tests are now passing; please
don't break them with a last-minute rush to get code in. I reserve the right to
revert changes if necessary.

2) I will create a new branch, just prior to the release (1.6.9). The old branch
that was previously meant to be 1.6.2 will be removed; it was essentially a very
recent branch of master anyway, just with a different version.

3) The only significant blocker to the release at the moment is being worked out
on a branch (https://redmine.open-bio.org/issues/3196). This should be fixed
very soon.

4) If needed the 1.6.9 branch can be used for any future bug fixes; I anticipate
this may happen if we need to get a new release out that GBrowse requires. The
version will be bumped to 1.006901, 1.006902, etc. accordingly.

Any questions/feedback on the above? I will be on #bioperl on IRC (freenode) as
well as here.

chris