I have created a new branch which is to be used for the upcoming Nov2009 release. This branch is called "Nov2009".
There are now two "stable" branches, the Aug2009 and Nov2009 branch. The Aug2009 branch will be used for the Aug2009-SP2 release which is scheduled for October. The Nov2009 branch will be used for the Nov2009 feature release in November (and the Nov2009-SP1 and Nov2009-SP2 releases in December and January).
The reason for making the Nov2009 branch now, and not waiting until after the Aug2009-SP2 release is that this way there is more time to stabilize the code for the release.
There are a number of new features that are planned for the November release. Some of these features are not completed yet, and all of these features have to be properly tested and fixed if they're broken. The not-yet-completed features *must* be completed before the end of October, or else they *will* be removed from the release.
New features for the November 2009 release are: - new SQL import from CSV files - new code for large joins - monetdb/merovingian distribution - database replication - native PHP client - others?
Features that will definitely not be part of the November 2009 release include: - Stratos's slicing and histogram stuff - more? These will be removed from the Nov2009 branch but of course kept in the development trunk.
All developers *must* now decide where each change they want to make to the code belongs.
If a bug occurs in the Aug2009 branch, the bug *must* be fixed in that branch. If a bug does not occur in the Aug2009 branch, but it does occur in the Nov2009 branch, it *must* be fixed in the Nov2009 branch (this includes fixes to complete the above-mentioned features). All other changes *must* go to the development trunk.
Propagation will be done from the Aug2009 branch to the Nov2009 branch, and from the Nov2009 branch to the development trunk.