ReleaseNotes

   1 /*****************************************************************
   2  * Release Notes: SquirrelMail 1.2.0                             *
   3  * The "And I Still Have Not Wrapped My Wife's Presents" Release *
   4  *    aka the "Miriam Noel" Release                              *
   5  * December 25, 2001                                             *
   6  *****************************************************************/
   7
   8 After a long wait, SquirrelMail is finally making a new major stable
   9 series release. The past year has been ANYTHING but uneventful for
  10 the SquirrelMail Project. This year has seen two leadership changes,
  11 the release of the 1.0 series, the 1.1 development series, and now
  12 finally the much awaited 1.2.0 release.
  13
  14 In this edition of SquirrelMail Release Notes:
  15    * All about this Release!!!
  16    * Reporting my favorite SquirrelMail 1.2.0 bug
  17    * Important Note about PHP 4.1.0
  18    * Where are we going from here?
  19
  20
  21 All about this Release!!!
  22 =========================
  23
  24 Being one of the most popular webmail clients, the developers of
  25 SquirrelMail feel a huge desire and responsiblity to continue push
  26 the envelope and make SquirrelMail the best it can possibly be. You
  27 will not be disappointed with this release, as it is by far the most
  28 feature rich, and yet it is still the same sleak and unbloated and
  29 cuddly webmail application that we have all grown to love. Here is
  30 an uncomplete list of new features and enhancements since the last
  31 stable release.
  32
  33   * Collapsable Folders - The folder list can be collapsed at any
  34           parent folder. This makes folder lists with large
  35           heirarchital structures much easier to manage and navigate.
  36   * The Paginator! - This enables quick access to any page in the
  37           message list by simply choosing the page number to view
  38           rather than tediously clicking "next" 50 times.
  39   * Hundreds of UI tweaks - The user interface has been given a
  40           facelift. The HTML has been largely overhauled, and while
  41           it still has the same general feel, it has been made more
  42           intuative.
  43   * Drafts - It is now possible to compose a message and save it to
  44           be sent at a later date with the drafts option.
  45   * New Options Page - The options page has been completely
  46           rewritten for several reasons, the main of which was to
  47           allow seamless integration of plugin options and to
  48           provide uniformity throughout the entire section.
  49   * Multiple Identities - It is now possible to create different
  50           identities (home, work, school) that can be chosen upon
  51           sending. Each identity can have its own email address,
  52           full name, and signature.
  53   * Reply Citations - Different types of citations are now possible
  54           when replying to messages.
  55   * Better Attachment Handling - The plugin, attachment_common, has
  56           been fully integrated into the core of SquirrelMail.  This
  57           allows inline viewing of several different types of
  58           attachments.
  59   * Integration of Several Plugins - The following plugins have been
  60           put directly into the core. As a result, be sure not to
  61           install these as plugins, as the result may be (at best)
  62           unpredictable: attachment_common, paginator, priority
  63           printer_friendly, sqclock, xmailer.
  64   * Improved support for newer versions of PHP. Note that you may
  65           have trouble if you are running PHP version 4.0.100
  66           (commonly distributed with Debian 3.0).
  67   * Ablity to mark messages as read and unread from the message listing.
  68   * Alternating Colors - The message list now alternates row colors
  69           by default.  This presents a much cleaner and easier to
  70           read interface to the user.
  71
  72 Aside from these obvious front end features, there are hundreds of
  73 bugs that have been fixed, and much of the code has been optomized
  74 and/or rewritten.  This stable release is far superior in all
  75 aspects to all previous versions of SquirrelMail.
  76
  77    Home Page:    http://www.squirrelmail.org/
  78    Download:     http://www.squirrelmail.org/download.php
  79    ScreenShots:  http://www.squirrelmail.org/screenshots.php
  80
  81
  82 Reporting my favorite SquirrelMail 1.2.0 bug
  83 ============================================
  84
  85 Of course, in the words of Linus Torvalds, this release is
  86 officially certified to be Bug-Free (tm).
  87
  88 However, if for some reason some bugs manage to find their way to
  89 the surface, please report them at once (after all, they ARE
  90 uncertified bugs!!!) The PROPER place to report these bugs is the SquirrelMail Bug Tracker.
  91
  92    http://www.squirrelmail.org/bugs
  93
  94 Thank you for your cooperation in that issue. That helps us to make
  95 sure that nothing slips through the cracks. Also, it would help if
  96 people would check existing tracker items for a bug before reporting
  97 it again. This would help to eliminate duplicate reports, and
  98 increase the time we can spend CODING by DECREASING the time we
  99 spend sorting through bug reports. And remember, check not only OPEN
 100 bug reports, but also closed ones as a bug that you report MAY have
 101 been fixed in CVS already.
 102
 103
 104 Important Note about PHP 4.1.0
 105 ==============================
 106
 107 First of all, let me say that you all HAVE been warned: the
 108 SquirrelMail Project Team is not supporting PHP 4.1.0 for the 1.2.0
 109 release. Basically, SquirrelMail was in the final death throws of
 110 this development series when the witty PHP folks decided to make the
 111 release of 4.1.0. Of course, we greatly appreciate their hard work! :)
 112
 113 However, we were too close to the end of this whole thing to be able
 114 to spend the week or two EXTRA that it will take to get SquirrelMail
 115 1.2.0 PHP 4.1.0 ready. This will, on the bright side, be a major
 116 priority amongst the team in the immediate future. At first look, it
 117 seems that 4.1.0 support should just require a collection of
 118 relatively minor tweaks. You can expect 4.1.0 support within 2-3
 119 weeks, as a part of a later 1.2.X release.
 120
 121
 122 Where are we going from here?
 123 =============================
 124
 125 After things cool down a bit and the smoke clears from 1.2.0,
 126 progress will begin on the Great SquirrelMail Rewrite, also known as
 127 the 1.3 development branch. This branch will eventually become the
 128 long talked about SquirrelMail 2.0. The major developmental emphasis
 129 for SquirrelMail 2.0 will be in making SquirrelMail more flexible
 130 and modular so that it might do a better job meeting the needs of
 131 our system administrators and end-users. We are greatly anticipating
 132 working in this area.
 133
 134 At the same time, we will kick start the SquirrelMail Teams. For
 135 some time now, we have been planning a reorganization of the project
 136 into a variety of subteams. Each subteam will focus on a different
 137 aspect of SquirrelMail Project work. These teams will hopefully help
 138 keep the SquirrelMail project more on track and to provide some
 139 semblance of order. This project has grown so large in the past two
 140 years that an orderly structure is necessary if anything is to get
 141 done effectively. The teams (as planned) are as follows:
 142
 143    Stable Series Team:      Maintains the stable series
 144    Development Series Team: Works on the development series
 145    i18n Team:               Handles i18n (internationalization) work
 146    Plugin Team:             Manages the mass of plugins
 147    User Support Team:       Helps users with their problems
 148    Documentation Team:      Manages the documentation
 149    Evangelism Team:         Spreads the good news of SquirrelMail
 150
 151 Teams will be led by one or two SquirrelMail team members. And team
 152 members can participate in as many teams as he or she desires.
 153
 154 For the next few weeks, the developers will be working on bugfixing
 155 and making the 1.2 series rock solid. After that, about mid January,
 156 focus will shift toward getting the teams in gear and starting work
 157 on the SquirrelMail 1.3 development series.
 158
 159                   Have a Merry Christmas!
 160                   Happy SquirrelMailing!
 161                     - The SquirrelMail Project Team