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Update contributing guide to mention our monthly release cycle (microsoft#567)
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‎CONTRIBUTING.md‎

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@@ -70,73 +70,48 @@ smoothly, but it allows you to help out by noticing when a step is
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missed or to learn in case someday you become a project maintainer as
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well!
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### Helping others
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First and foremost, we try to be helpful to users of the extension.
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We monitor
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[Stack Overflow questions](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/visual-studio-code+python)
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to see where people might need help. We also try to respond to all
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issues in some way in a timely manner (typically in less than one
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business day, definitely no more than a week). We also answer
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questions that reach us in other ways, e.g. Twitter.
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### Iteration/milestone cycle
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The extension aims for a two-week cycle with an appropriate
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The extension aims to do a new release every month. A
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[release plan](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-python/labels/release%20plan)
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is created for each release to help track anything that requires a
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person to do (long term this project aims to automate as much of the
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development process as possible). The current issues being worked on
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for a release are tracked in a
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[milestone](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-python/milestones)
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which tracks what is actively being worked on/towards the next
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release.
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#### Tick-tock development process
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Modeled after
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[Intel's tick-tock model](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tick-tock_model),
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our development cycle oscillates between two different focuses. In a
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"tick" cycle, we discuss potential changes to our development cycle.
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This allows to constantly improve how we develop the extension rather
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than simply let the process stagnate and develop outmodded approaches.
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In a "tock" cycle we apply any changes that were agree to by the team
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during the previous "tick" cycle. By taking an entire cycle to discuss
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and agree to any changes we provide enough time to reflect upon any
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proposed changes so we don't make needless changes.
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A "tock" cycle also aims to spend a week purely focused on cleaning up
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technical debt. This can be in the form of code refactorings, updating
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the code to support new checks introduced by TypeScript, etc. The goal
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is to keep the code base manageable long-term and to not end up
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calcifying any bad practices. This also provides a good opportunity to
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apply any development process changes to work that isn't flagged as
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time-critical as a new feature may be.
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#### Iteration schedule
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* Day 1 (Tuesday)
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* Leave code freeze from previous cycle
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* Incomplete items from the previous cycle are discussed
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* Why didn't an item get completed?
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* Should it transition to this new cycle or be dropped from the
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schedule for now?
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* [tick] Discuss if there's any issues with the current
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development process
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* [tock] Begin applying any changes to the development process as
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agreed upon during the previous "tick" cycle
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* Day 7 (Monday)
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* 3rd-party dependencies frozen
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* Ask CELA to update the TPN file
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* Day 14 (2nd Monday)
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* Update the TPN file as instructed by CELA
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* Bump version number
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* Code freeze
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* Cut a `.vsix` file for testing
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* Go through
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[issues awaiting validation](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-python/issues?q=label%3A%22awaiting+4-validation%22+is%3Aclosed)
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& validate they have been fixed (and not subsequently broken by
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later changes)
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* Update the
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[changelog](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-python/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md)
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* Create a branch for the release
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* Unfreeze the `master` branch
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* Make sure the
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[documentation](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/python/python-tutorial)
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-- including the
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[WOW](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/languages/python) page
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-- has [appropriate pull requests](https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-docs/pulls)
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* Draft a post for the [team blog](https://aka.ms/pythonblog)
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Assuming no last-minute issues, the release should be made public
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later that same week. After releasing, the previous release's branch
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is turned into a tag and its branch is deleted.
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(which is actively updated as plans change).
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The overall schedule for a release is to code freeze for on the last
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Monday of the month to coincide with Visual Studio Code's code freeze.
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We then aim to release later that week so the latest version of the
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extension is already live by the time Visual Studio Code launches
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their new release. This is so we are ready to use any new features
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of Visual Studio Code the day they go live. We do bugfix-only releases
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between scheduled releases as necessary.
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All development is actively done in the `master` branch of the
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repository. It is what allows us to have an
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[insiders build](#insiders-build) which is expected to be stable at
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all times. We do keep the previous release as a branch in case the
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need for a bugfix release arises. But once a new release is made we
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convert the older branch into a tag and delete the branch as
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Visual Studio Code's automatic updating makes keeping old versions
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around unnecessary.
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Since we try to spend about 25% of our development time fixing bugs
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and removing technical debt, the week of a release is mostly spent
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focusing on that topic. That way we don't ignore the health of the
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code base by accidentally focusing on new features exclusively.
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### Issue triaging
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* [`verification`](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-python/labels/awaiting%201-verification):
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We need to verify that the issue can be replicated
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* [`2-PR`](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-python/labels/awaiting%202-PR):
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The issue is valid and is now awaiting a pull request to address the
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issue
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* [`3-merge`](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-python/labels/awaiting%203-merge):
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A pull request has been created and is currently being reviewed
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The issue is valid and is now awaiting a fix to be created and
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merged into the `master` branch
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* [`4-validation`](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-python/labels/awaiting%204-validation):
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A pull request has been merged and resolution of the issue should be
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independently validated
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labeled `awaiting 2-PR`
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* If no issue exists, open one and wait for it to reach the
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`awaiting 2-PR` stage before submitting the pull request
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1. Open the pull request, mentioning the appropriate issue(s)
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1. Open the pull request, mentioning the appropriate issue(s) in the
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pull request message body
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* The pull request is expected to have appropriate unit tests
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* The pull request must pass its CI run before merging will be
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considered
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1. [Maintainers only] Update referenced issues to the
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`awaiting 3-merge` stage
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* Code coverage is expected to not worsen
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1. Make sure all status checks are green (e.g. CLA check, CI, etc.)
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1. Address any review comments
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1. [Maintainers only] Merge the pull request
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1. [Maintainers only] Update affected issues to be:
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1. Closed (with an appropriate `closed-` label)
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1. The stage is set to `awaiting 4-validation`
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1. The issue and pull request are attached to the current milestone
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1. The issue(s) are attached to the current milestone
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1. Register OSS usage
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1. Email CELA about any 3rd-party usage changes
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would be `2018.7.0`, the second release that month would be
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`2018.7.1`, etc.
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### Insiders Build
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## Insiders Build
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Starting in 2018, we started publishing the latest development
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build of the extension onto a cloud storage provider.
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If you are interested in helping us test our development builds or would like
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to stay ahead of the curve, then please feel free to download and install the
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extension from the following [location](https://pvsc.blob.core.windows.net/extension-builds/ms-python-insiders.vsix). Once you have downloaded the [ms-python-insiders.vsix](https://pvsc.blob.core.windows.net/extension-builds/ms-python-insiders.vsix)
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file, please follow the instructions on [this page](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/extension-gallery#_install-from-a-vsix) to install the extension.
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The insiders build of the extension:
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* Will get replcaed with new releases published onto the [VS Code Marketplace](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/VSCode).
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* Does not get updated with new insider build releases.
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* Is built everytime a PR is commited into the [master branch](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-python).
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extension from the following
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[location](https://pvsc.blob.core.windows.net/extension-builds/ms-python-insiders.vsix).
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Once you have downloaded the
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[ms-python-insiders.vsix](https://pvsc.blob.core.windows.net/extension-builds/ms-python-insiders.vsix)
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file, please follow the instructions on
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[this page](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/extension-gallery#_install-from-a-vsix)
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to install the extension.
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The insiders build of the extension ...:
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* Will be replaced with new releases published onto the
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[VS Code Marketplace](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/VSCode).
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* Does not get updated with new insider build releases (if you want to
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test a newer insiders build, uninstall the old version of the
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extension and then install the new version)
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* Is built everytime a PR is commited into the [`master` branch](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-python).

‎README.md‎

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# Python extension for Visual Studio Code
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<p align="center">
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<a href="https://travis-ci.org/Microsoft/vscode-python">
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<img src="https://travis-ci.org/Microsoft/vscode-python.svg?branch=master" />
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</a>
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<a href="https://codecov.io/gh/Microsoft/vscode-python">
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<img src="https://codecov.io/gh/Microsoft/vscode-python/branch/master/graph/badge.svg" />
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</a>
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</p>
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A [Visual Studio Code](https://code.visualstudio.com/) [extension](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/VSCode) with rich support for the [Python language](https://www.python.org/) (_including Python 3.6_), with features including the following and more:
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* Linting ([Prospector](https://pypi.io/project/prospector/), [Pylint](https://pypi.io/project/pylint/), [pycodestyle](https://pypi.io/project/pycodestyle/), [Flake8](https://pypi.io/project/flake8/), [pylama](https://github.com/klen/pylama), [pydocstyle](https://pypi.io/project/pydocstyle/), [mypy](http://mypy-lang.org/) with config files and plugins)
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* Intellisense (autocompletion with support for PEP 484 and PEP 526)

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