Dear fellow MonetDB developers,
this is to keep you up-to-date about the short-term release plans for the MonetDB product family as they have recently been discussed here at CWI in A'dam.
Please read until the end. Thank you very much in advance for your patience ans cooperation!
Triggered by (1) the major progress in extending the functionality of the new "Algebra back-end" based version of Pathfinder (MonetDB/XQuery) to (almost) meet the functionality as provided by the (til date) default "milprint_summer back-end" based version (see details below), and (2) the desire of at least one distinct client to use the new "Algebra back-end" based version of Pathfinder (MonetDB/XQuery), we plan to have a new release of Pathfinder (MonetDB/XQuery), soon.
Unfortunately, the functionality of the new "Algebra back-end" based version of Pathfinder (MonetDB/XQuery) is not yet identical with that of the (til date) default "milprint_summer back-end" based version. First of all, extensions beyond the XQuery and XQuery Updates standards, such as XRpc, StandOff, and pre-compiled XQuery modules ("MIL modules") are not supported, as well as recursive user-defined functions are not supported, yet. (The not yet working id/idref functionality is currently being implemented.) Moreover, the XQuery Update functionality is not yet complete/correct, as it cannot yet handle inserts of node who's type is not statically known at query compile time. In particular the latter shortcoming currently keeps us from our original plans of making the new "Algebra back-end" the default in the upcoming release. Hence, most probably, the upcoming release will still come with the "milprint_summer back-end" set as default. However, as already in the latest release, runtime options allow users to easily enable the new "Algebra back-end".
Some (internal) API changes on the development trunk since the last release (mainly the signatures of GDK functions BAT_select(), BATmmap() & BATmadvice()), prohibit a new "feature release" of pathfinder, only, as this is incompatible with currently available releases of MonetDB4 (Server) and MonetDB (Common). Hence, also this upcoming release will be a "complete" one, i.e., all MonetDB related packages (MonetDB Common, Clients, MonetDB4 Server, MonetDB5 Server, MonetDB/SQL, MonetDB/Geom & MonetDB/XQuery will (have to be) released.
Given this, our plan is as follows:
Within the next week, we will fork new "Stable" branches of the current development trunks. Please let us know at your earliest convenience, in case you have new feature developments "in the pipe", that should go into the new release. In case you have just started new "cutting edge" developments that are still far from mature to be released soon, please refrain from checking them in until the new release branches have been created.
Once the new release branches are created, we plan to spend about one month on thoroughly testing and stabilizing the new release and its packaging. Any help from all of you is highly appreciated! In particular, we count on the support for all "first users" of the new Pathfinder (MonetDB/XQuery) "Algebra back-end' (even if it will not be the default choice).
The envisioned release date is "End of June".
Please let us know, in case you have any questions, comments, suggestions, etc.
Yours Sincerely, Stefan