Comment 36 for bug 629622

People have been asking for updates (even ScottK while I've been writing
this!), so I'm going to try and post daily(?) situation reports; I was
originally going to distribute this privately, but at the suggestion of
somebody on the release team, I'll post the updates to the bug report so
that everyone has a clearer picture and nobody gets missed out. Target:

  https://launchpad.net/ubuntu-font-family/+milestone/0.70

Current ETA guessimate: "next week". As follows:

  0a. 'ubuntu-typeface-interest' PPA access

Two websites have been contacted asking them to redirect enthusiastic Ubuntu
users to the instructions for the 'ubuntu-typeface-interest' group
specifically for the purpose: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Ubuntu_Font_Family#Howto

An article change by the first website resulted in an immediate addition of
>100 new users, followed by ~35 requests per day. (Total now >= 300). The
second website have not replied to Email or IRC messages yet. Attempts to
make contact are continuing.

  1a. Short-term libre-licensing (bug #632411) - Mark + N

Blocker: There was a hectic twenty-four-hour-period on Thursday as an
additional person was brought into the loop. Mark and Nicholas are
working on the licensing. Copyright assignment would be required in
order to allow for progressive relicensing and thus the assignment
procedure will be documented, see (7b).

  1b. Longer-term libre-licensing - Mark + $others

Partial blocker (for documentation): Dave has sent Paul a (large) Google
document covering points that needed to be noted for (1b), Paul doing
comments and dots+commas over the weekend. Will go to Mark after that, but
is needed in the shorter term for license-FAQ writing.

  6. Harmonise the versioning (bug #629727) - Done

Complete: Consenus was reached to use N.MM versioning (minor version of
'00-99'), zeros always present and any small change causes an increment.
This system meets the requirements of (a) the .ttf 'name' table string
format, (b) the .ttf 'head' table binary fraction, (c) the Debian Policy
'Version:' specification. Major number will indicate metrics stability, and
will be in the control of Canonical. The methodology will be documented (7b).

  7a. Harmonise the .deb package naming (bug #633508) - Paul

It needs to be *re-enforced to everyone* that a 1.00 release will absolutely
_not_ be available until sometime in 2011. What (may) be released in time
for Ubuntu 10.10 /will/ continue to evolve and receive changes, even
potentially evasive ones (Greek). Currently the debugging glyphs in the PUA
(giving definitive version and weight) were removed (bug #640623)---
something that was not requested, and it is likely to be preferable to
restore them to aid in on-going debugging.

  7b. Write+Include documentation in source/wiki/.deb - Paul, Dave, ...

Blocker until done: Prepare FAQs on contributing, feedback, design rationale
(collate DM blog posts), stylistic choices, licensing, future direction.
My belief is that the technical risks are lower than the
social/non-technical. Documentation is thus focused towards the latter.

  7c. Stale font version detection - TBC

In order for users to have a stable desktop environment, it may be necessary
to add detection code to warn the user when they have both a packaged, and
an unpackage version of font installed within the system. My memory is that
a similiar approach was taken for detecting stability problems that may have
been caused attributable to Automatix.

  8. Harmonise the typeface family name ("Beta", bug #602870) - DM

Blocked: on (1). The 'Beta' suffix will probably be removed in the same
upstream spin that changes the licence over. The Ubuntu-related website
have been updated (bug #620537) to request 'UbuntuBeta' or 'Ubuntu'.

  9. Upload to main archive - Paul(?)
 10. Main Inclusion Report - Paul
 11. Feature Freeze Exception - Paul

All blocked: lack of "source code" (bug #640526) and lack of licence (1). A
full list of /all/ source files necessary to replicate the build needs to
come from DM, and will need to be put into an agreed upstream tarball/Bzr
tree format. I had not originally been taking this step into account.

Probably what will happen is that we'll move the source code files around,
and then ask DM to follow /that/ layout for future releases---future
deliveries will consist of a tarball containing both .ttf files /and/ the
respective source files.

 12. CD seeding size (750kB) -Done

Done: Members of the release team have stated that at present there is
sufficient space available on the CD images.

 13. Fix 'High' and 'Critical' bugs -DM

Quality-focused work (bug fixing) has been notched back, in order to
focus on (the possibility of) shipping something in Ubuntu 10.10.
(If a) release happens, there should be time for a couple of bug-fix
releases (eg. hinted italic slant, bug #632451). If people consider a
particular visual bug *essential*, please target them to the milestone:

  https://launchpad.net/ubuntu-font-family/+milestone/0.70

 14. Themes to use as UFF as User Interface default - Mark/UX/KC, later

Blocked, on 'everything': This is the last decision on the journey and does
not involve the Ubuntu Font Family itself. Turning the Ubuntu Font Family
on once the pieces are in place (rather than just shipping it) is off the
board until there is a *working package* present in and on the CD images.

 15. Soothing Tea

If you feel that something is mispresented or just requires further
information, please seek clarification, or correct it!... Nobody
should feel stressed.