On April 14th, the Joomla team conducted a chat session on IRC. The purpose of the chat was to give users an opportunity to connect with the Joomla team directly. And to ask questions about, in particular, Joomla 1.6.
Some days ago the team published the chat log from the event at joomla.org. I thought I'd spare you going through the complete log. The chat was hosted by Mark Dexter and Robert Deutz. So read on to get the highlights from the "Ask the Joomla team" chat session. As I see it, at least ;)
The next chat session will be happen on 21st April 2010 4 UTC and will feature Brad Baker and Louis Landry.
On the release date for Joomla 1.6 beta
<Mark_Dexter> We're making good progress towards a beta release, and there will be an announcement on this soon.
<lonemamber> what does that mean in real terms
<SullySullivan> What does "soon" mean? This calendar year?
<Mark_Dexter> the announcement should be within a week or two
On the Joomla release cycle
<Mark_Dexter> but we are going to a much shorter release cycle, as you may know
<Mark_Dexter> so that our target for 1.7 is production release of 1.6 + 6 months
On bug fixing in Joomla 1.6
<AmyStephen> the bug squad for 1.6 is a great way to get devs inolved - and to build from the success
<gregdaynes> awesome
<D3vil_> Which tasks does one have in the Bug-Squad ?
<Mark_Dexter> that will be part of the announcement
<Mark_Dexter> in the bug squad, we manage the issue tracker and fix all of the bugs
<Mark_Dexter> so we need people to monitor the tracker, help with testing, and of course code bug fixes
On extensions for Joomla 1.6
<Mark_Dexter> Ok. We have two questions: Extensions for 1.6 and Delays on 1.6.
<Mark_Dexter> Robert, do you know the answer about extensions?
<rdeutz> Not really, I know the discussion about that
<Mark_Dexter> I know we will have documentation about adapting 1.5 extensions to 1.6
<Mark_Dexter> but I don't know how easy or hard it will be.
<Mark_Dexter> The new ACL is very easy to plug in to an extension, I believe.
<Mark_Dexter> But there may be changes in the MVC that take some work.
<Mark_Dexter> But I'm not that familiar with it at this point.
<rdeutz> it is related to the component
<ThomasKahl> Virtuemart will be difficult ;-) i can tell you...
<rdeutz> complex component, complex work to integrate
<Mark_Dexter> We want 3pd's to be able to start work soon, using the beta, so that extensions will be avaiable
<lonemamber> so the docs outlining the work needed will be availble with the beta
<Mark_Dexter> yes, that is the goal. or shortly afterwards
On Joomla 1.6 ACL
<gregdaynes> will components be required to have support for the ACL? I mean, if my component doesn't need it, will it still function without it?
<rdeutz> @thomasKahl yes
<bembelimen> every component needs acl, i guess....
On the release of Joomla 1.6 and Joomla 1.7
<Mark_Dexter> Can I say something about the timing of 1.6 and 1.7?
<Mark_Dexter> We are making a fundamental change in the way we do new versions, starting a while ago.
<rdeutz> the plan is the release 1.7 in 6 months after 1.6 stable
<Mark_Dexter> We are adapting a stable trunk strategy
<Mark_Dexter> what that means is that, at any time, the trunk is stable enough for a release
<Mark_Dexter> so, going forward, we plan to do time-based releases, instead of feature-based releases
<AmyStephen> YEA! Mark - that is good IMO
<Mark_Dexter> what that means is that release 1.7 at a point in time, and whatever feature are in, those are the 1.7 features
<Mark_Dexter> so we can plan the releases, and the features can slide if they aren't ready
<skOre> very good! that will also make it easier to keep up with upcoming releases when you build extensions.
<Mark_Dexter> so, the clock will start ticking for 1.7 as soon as 1.6 is production released
<AmyStephen> WP does that - and it makes it very predictable for users
<Mark_Dexter> also, we are going to make it much easier for devs to contribute
<Mark_Dexter> The risk with the time-based releases is that there aren't many new features
On Joomla 1.7
<pentacle> so mark, what's the discussed features for 1.7?
<Mark_Dexter> this has been Louis' top priority for a while now
<ewel> has that decision to move to time based releases been discussed in the forums or is it an internal decision?
<Mark_Dexter> I don't know the 1.7 features. If you have been following the CMS list, you saw that there was some discussion about a new process for discussing features.
On upgrading from Joomla 1.5 to 1.6
<Michael___> How difficult is the upgrade from 1.5 to 1.6?
<Mark_Dexter> On the upgrade, I think it will be easy for core and will depend on the extensions.
<Mark_Dexter> But again I'm not expert on this subject.
On Joomla 1.6 templates
<coder4life> Will current Joomla templates work on Joomla 1.6, the team mentioned that structure for templates was simliar?
<Mark_Dexter> I'm not sure. Can someone speak about 1.6 templates?
<rdeutz> we have changed the 1.6 output
<rdeutz> so I think 1.5 templated will work with the 1.5 overwrites
<kosse> nice the template thing
<rdeutz> but you have to change the template when you will run the 1.6 output model
On the Beez 2.0 template
<D3vil_> one last question: why is Beez 2.0 not in joomla 1.6 ?
<Mark_Dexter> beez will be in 1.6
<jennifermarriott> Beez is in a branch to test
<D3vil_> beez or beez2 ?
<Mark_Dexter> beez2
<jennifermarriott> beez2 sorry
On Joomla 1.6 speed and performance
<ewel> on speed, is it true 1.6 is slower than 1.5?
<Mark_Dexter> it's too soon to say
<coder4life>I will disagree there, I saw a significant speed improvement
<Mark_Dexter> there is no reason to think it should be significantly slower
<Willebil> initial test indeed show 1.6 is slower, but I am still profiling some stuff
<ewel> i have no opinion myself, just wondering, and it seems important
<AmyStephen> still pretty earlier for performance testing - but it does test slower
<Willebil> which is not strange, ACL adds something to that for sure
On development transparency
<SFGolfer> WP has a dedicated development area with release dates for their forthcoming major release and not a confusing Google area with a spreadsheet serving as the latest method to update the Community. Can Joomla do the same to better inform the general public in everyday talk and not in developer talk?
<Mark_Dexter> We will be releasing a new developer site shortly. HOpefully that will help with this.
<skOre> can you talk about the content and goal of that developer site?
<Mark_Dexter> we want to make it very easy, for example, for any dev to create a branch and start coding.
<Mark_Dexter> all they have to do is sign the jca
<Gerlof> What do you mean by 'shortly' ;) ?
<Mark_Dexter> days, weeks
<Mark_Dexter> I believe
<Mark_Dexter> (but I thought it was days 3 weeks ago...)
<Mark_Dexter> but very soon