[fpc-devel] 134 open merge requests - is that normal?

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Mon, 6 Apr 2026, Juha Manninen via fpc-devel wrote:

> Kostas Michalopoulos via fpc-devel kirjoitti 6.4.2026 klo 15.42:
>> FWIW i agree that the release cycle may need tweaks, but i think it should 
>> be based on what bugs/tasks are to be fixed/done for a release and come 
>> whenever those are fixed/done, not in fixed timesteps - especially since 
>> FPC relies largely on volunteer work who work in their free time. It isn't 
>> like the FPC devs have a bunch of MBA's with quarterly growth goals to 
>> please :-P.
>
> "/release cycle may need tweaks/"... For God's sake Kostas, why you repeat 
> that mambo-jambo? Those same things have been repeated year after year 
> after year.
>
> None of the FPC development team seems to have any intention to make a 
> release.

This is not correct.

But we depend on the person assigned to the task. Florian has the task for
3.2.4. He will testify that I prompt him about it regular as clockwork,
since years.

If Florian agrees, and there is someone out there that wants to tackle the
task instead of Florian: contact me, we'll set it up. I'll give the
necessary rights on gitlab and so on.

After that:

I have been waiting for 3.2.4 to go out the door before proposing a time-based
release schedule.

The advantages of time-based releases are clear. By only including what is
considered stable/tested, we hopefully avoid a lowering of quality.

A new version based on trunk will of course be more risk, but that is
inevitable.

I am not active on the forums, but if there are people interested in
tackling the task there, tell them to contact me, and we'll see about
getting 3.2.4 out of the door and setting up enough CI/CD to make regular
releases effortless - at least for the major platforms.

I'll see if we can provide some monetary compensation for
the task, from the FPC & Lazarus foundation.

If Graeme wants the task (which you seem to imply):
we've cooperated before and I'll be glad to do so again.

Michael.