[Development] Qt 5 Next Steps

[jason.mcdonald at nokia.com]

By now, I'm sure you've all seen various announcements about the Qt 5 Alpha Release and you've hopefully also read Lars' blog on Qt Labs.  The main purpose of the Alpha is to show users where Qt 5 is headed and to get feedback on the various new features and API's, and some useful feedback that will help us to improve Qt 5 is already flowing in.

So, where do we go from here?

The next big milestone for Qt 5 will be the Beta release.  For now, no specific date has been set for the Beta -- it will be released "when it's done", and how long that takes will depend on all of us in the Qt Community.

As Lars outlined in his blog, the period leading up to the Alpha has delivered some big architectural changes inside Qt 5 and some important new features have been added.  For now, the time for big changes has passed and the next phase of the Qt 5 lifecycle is all about Quality.

The primary goals of the Beta phase are to:
* address API and design feedback received on the Alpha release,
* improve performance and reduce resource consumption,
* improve stability and security of new code, and
* fix regressions from Qt 4.x functionality.

There are several ways that each of us can contribute to achieving the Qt 5 Beta goals:
* Work on one of the critical tasks that have been identified in Qt's bugtracker -- https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-25005.
* Fix known bugs -- see https://bugreports.qt-project.org/secure/IssueNavigator.jspa?mode=hide&requestId=12996.
* Test Qt 5 on your platform and report any bugs that you find.
* Help us to improve test coverage (and thus prevent future regressions) by fixing or diagnosing known autotest failures.
* Help us to improve the documentation, examples and demos (or contribute new examples and demos).

In addressing any of these tasks, it is very important to avoid creating new regressions, as these will slow down the efforts of the rest of the community.   The commit policy outlined by Lars a couple of weeks ago is one tool for reducing regressions, and the Continuous Integration System is another, but vigilance from contributors and approvers is also needed.

Qt's CI System will catch many regressions before they make it into the master branch, but the CI system depends on autotests -- it can only catch regressions in code that is covered by at least one autotest.  Therefore, we should always think about whether our changes are covered by existing autotests and seriously consider filling in gaps in the test coverage.  Approvers should also be mindful of test coverage when reviewing changes.

As many contributors head off for a well-deserved Easter break, it's worth reflecting on what we have achieved so far with Qt 5 and on what is still to be done.  After Easter, work on Qt 5 Beta will begin in earnest and it promises to be an interesting time.

If you have any questions about the Qt 5 Beta (or about testing, release planning, or bug tracking), I'll happily do my best to answer them.  As well as this email address, you can find me on the Freenode IRC server under the nick "jasmcdon".

Happy Easter,
--
Jason McDonald
QTestLib Maintainer / Quality Evangelist
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.qt-project.org/pipermail/development/attachments/20120404/05341744/attachment.html>