↓Skip to main content

Releasing Twisted, and procedure in general

·2 mins

I’m in the middle of releasing Twisted 10.1, following the procedure document that I wrote when I released Twisted 10.0. Having everything written down has been a wonderful aide so far, but doing the release twice has made me think about what it takes to breathe life into old procedure.

The very first step has already been taken, figure out what the process is and write it down. There are still some bits that are unknown and hazy, but I expect they’ll be clear by the time we’re done. Anyway, writing things down is only the beginning, after that, there are two things that I think we ought to do roughly concurrently.

The first is automate the existing procedure for which here are already many tickets filed, and the second is simplify the process itself. Are all of the steps in the process really needed? Why do we have so many tarballs? Why upload the tarballs to a server that is only periodically mirrored by the actual official download location? Why generate a PDF?

I don’t want to start a discussion on the details here, but rather raise the need for Twisted to begin considering this simplification, and for myself to begin articulating some of my own thoughts about process in general.

The final, on-going step in revitalizing procedure is to delegate the task, either to another human being or better yet a machine. I wonder if it would be possible to have the Twisted release done by a monthly cronjob?

In summary, to revive an existing process:

  • Figure out what the process is and write it down
  • Simplify the process itself, reducing the number of steps
  • Automate as many of the steps as possible, thus combining them
  • Delegate the execution of the process
↑