[tex-live] status report on TL? (LaTeX release)

[Karl Berry]

      a) till end of August there will be a beta version,
      b) a stable, tested version can be out by mid September.

     From the production side (TeXCollection: TeXLive and CTAN
    by Lehmanns) that's not a real problem. But I do not know
    which promises have been given by user groups...

Well, TUG has not made an absolute promise to its members, although we
have said all along that we expected to ship late July/early August,
since that's what we've discussed here.  But that's not the main issue
in my mind.

The main issue to me is that it's only mid-July now.  Mid-September is
two months away, the beta isn't out yet (is it?), and it all seems like
a lot of potential for slippage.  What happens if mid-September becomes
early October, and it still hasn't been released?  I mean, every user
group promised TeX Live *sometime* in 2003 :).  Or, here's another
nightmare scenario -- final version does get released in mid-September,
we go to press, and there's a serious bug on the CD because we all
rushed it.  (Volker, you and I had talked about accepting a delay of two
or three weeks.  This is a delay of at least six, and more likely 8-10
weeks.)

So, I am not sure what to do.  On the one hand, it's obviously bad to
put out a TL which will become instantly obsolete when the new latex is
released.  On the other hand, it seems even worse to not really know
when the new TL is coming out at all ...

I guess my inclination is be conservative and release with the old latex
asap.  As annoying as that is, it also will give everyone breathing room
to test the new latex, see if any major packages need to be updated as
well, etc., etc.  But I guess I could be convinced to wait if that's the
consensus from everyone else ... ?

Perhaps we can shoot for releasing TL 2004 in May or early June,
depending on everyone's schedule.  And if Thomas releases a tetex with
the new latex shortly after its stable release, that will also help get
it out there. 

Reactions?

k