parrot virtual developer summit: 11 april 2010

* review of the 2.3 release

  * deprecation policy is better than before. some would prefer opt-in to opt-out
  * need better testing of packages before supported releases


* process questions

good:
  * shorter deprecation policy.
  * new weekly status meeting time works well.
  * gsoc works well for getting new parrot contributors.
  * weekly roadmap review is helpful, keep it going.

bad: we set too many weekly priorities.
fix:
  * make weekly priorities specific tasks
  * completable by 1-2 people in a week
  * one won't be set unless 2+ people have volunteered to work on it
  * know this fix works if we complete a higher percentage of our weekly priorities

bad: milestone priorities are hard to manage far out in time
fix:
  * stop the busy work of maintaining longer-term roadmap items
  * use a long-term roadmap for big plans, not small tasks.
  * every week, review weekly, monthly, and quarterly priorities.
  * schedule people on weekly priorities.
  * know this fix works if we complete a higher percentage of our weekly priorities, and spend less time maintaining roadmap items

the team has committed to these fixes for the 2.6 quarterly cycle.

bad: stale tickets in trac
fix:
  * reduce ticket count by periodic focused triage/fix sessions
  * use ticket system only for bugs, put wishlist items on wiki
  * open separate tickets for testing bugs and their fixes, close original bug report with pointer to new ticket
  * put wishlist items on wiki page
  * define stale tickets as 'no comments in 6 months', make trac report available
{LOST THE THREAD HERE, NEED BETTER SUMMARY OF FIX AND SUCCESS CRITERIA}


* error reporting (line numbers)

  * high priority for rakudo
  * testing framework needed
  * in progress: cotto, chromatic, tene have worked or will work on this


* block exit handlers, TT#1523

  * need more info from rakudo team
  * may require pdd/spec work
  * in progress: allison, whiteknight working on it, will contact jnthn


* lexical implementation

  * need requirements from rakudo


* performance/memory usage in general

  * list of possible performance improvements at
  http://trac.parrot.org/parrot/wiki/PerformanceImprovements
  * fixing vtable overrides and sweep free gc are monthly-branch-sized tasks
  to be scheduled in future parrot weekly meetings


* plumage (project priority, how to boost resources, how far along is it? what does it need?)

  * project priority for parrot
  * not enough developers working on it
  * will not add to parrot core, will keep as separate project
  * fix: seek out funders, which may unblock developers


* NFG strings

  * gsoc proposal in
  * hope it's funded, discuss later if not


* concurrency

  * gsoc proposal in
  * threads currently work, but are limited
  * not a pre-rakudo * priority
  * will focus on this after gc has been addressed


* prototype-based OO

  * PMC and Class unification will not be extensive
  * other class models will not be excluded
  * PMCProxy will go away
  * will add Prototype PMC to parrot core and notify rakudo team


* HLL interop, TT#556, TT#557, TT#558

  * sorear working on an implementation
  * may require spec changes based on work in progress
  * meeting with stakeholders (sorear, tene, pmichaud, japhb) would be beneficial


* moving the build system off Perl5

  * not urgent, just general long-term direction
  * need smaller tasks, wiki page seems a good place


* chmod files
* tar library
* zlib library

  * good features, add to wishlist


* git conversion

  * not planned during this quarter
  * revisit at next quarterly meeting


* security subsystem

  * parrot priority, largest blocker for PL/Parrot
  * not before 2.9
  * specific tasks can be completed sooner
  * coordinate with PL/Parrot team


* runcore support, can we trim the list?

  * discuss in upcoming weekly status meeting, to be deprecated at 2.3


* next big task: GC/Concurrency/Lorito/?

  * garbage collection is the next big task
  * possibly followed by: concurrency, lorito, jit


* make sure gsoc students aren't blocked
  * use weekly tasks to support them
  * have them attend weekly status meeting