ReleaseNotes

   1 /*****************************************************************
   2  * Release Notes: SquirrelMail 1.2.3                             *
   3  * The "One-Eyed Programmer" Release                             *
   4  * 21 January 2002                                               *
   5  *****************************************************************/
   6
   7   Note: Please see the ChangeLog for 1.2.0, 1.2.1 and 1.2.2 bugs
   8         that have been fixed in this 1.2.2 release.
   9
  10 After a long wait, SquirrelMail is finally making a new major stable
  11 series release. The past year has been ANYTHING but uneventful for
  12 the SquirrelMail Project. This year has seen two leadership changes,
  13 the release of the 1.0 series, the 1.1 development series, and now
  14 finally the much awaited 1.2 release.
  15
  16 In this edition of SquirrelMail Release Notes:
  17    * All about this Release!!!
  18    * Reporting my favorite SquirrelMail 1.2 bug
  19    * Important Note about PHP 4.1.0
  20    * Where are we going from here?
  21    * About our Release Aliases
  22
  23 All about this Release!!!
  24 =========================
  25
  26 Being one of the most popular webmail clients, the developers of
  27 SquirrelMail feel a huge desire and responsibility to continue push
  28 the envelope and make SquirrelMail the best it can possibly be. You
  29 will not be disappointed with this release, as it is by far the most
  30 feature rich, and yet it is still the same sleek and unbloated and
  31 cuddly webmail application that we have all grown to love. Here is
  32 an incomplete list of new features and enhancements since the last
  33 stable release.
  34
  35   * Collapsible Folders - The folder list can be collapsed at any
  36           parent folder. This makes folder lists with large
  37           hierarchical structures much easier to manage and navigate.
  38   * The Paginator! - This enables quick access to any page in the
  39           message list by simply choosing the page number to view
  40           rather than tediously clicking "next" 50 times.
  41   * Hundreds of UI tweaks - The user interface has been given a
  42           face-lift. The HTML has been largely overhauled, and while
  43           it still has the same general feel, it has been made more
  44           intuitive.
  45   * Drafts - It is now possible to compose a message and save it to
  46           be sent at a later date with the drafts option.
  47   * New Options Page - The options page has been completely
  48           rewritten for several reasons, the main of which was to
  49           allow seamless integration of plugin options and to
  50           provide uniformity throughout the entire section.
  51   * Multiple Identities - It is now possible to create different
  52           identities (home, work, school) that can be chosen upon
  53           sending. Each identity can have its own email address,
  54           full name, and signature.
  55   * Reply Citations - Different types of citations are now possible
  56           when replying to messages.
  57   * Better Attachment Handling - The plugin, attachment_common, has
  58           been fully integrated into the core of SquirrelMail.  This
  59           allows inline viewing of several different types of
  60           attachments.
  61   * Integration of Several Plugins - The following plugins have been
  62           put directly into the core. As a result, be sure not to
  63           install these as plugins, as the result may be (at best)
  64           unpredictable: attachment_common, paginator, priority,
  65           printer_friendly, sqclock, xmailer.
  66   * Improved support for newer versions of PHP. Note that you may
  67           have trouble if you are running PHP version 4.0.100
  68           (commonly distributed with Debian 3.0).
  69   * Ability to mark messages as read and unread from the message listing.
  70   * Alternating Colors - The message list now alternates row colors
  71           by default.  This presents a much cleaner and easier to
  72           read interface to the user.
  73
  74 Aside from these obvious front end features, there are hundreds of
  75 bugs that have been fixed, and much of the code has been optimized
  76 and/or rewritten.  This stable release is far superior in all
  77 aspects to all previous versions of SquirrelMail.
  78
  79    Home Page:    http://www.squirrelmail.org/
  80    Download:     http://www.squirrelmail.org/download.php
  81    ScreenShots:  http://www.squirrelmail.org/screenshots.php
  82
  83
  84 Reporting my favorite SquirrelMail 1.2 bug
  85 ==========================================
  86
  87 Of course, in the words of Linus Torvalds, this release is officially
  88 certified to be Bug-Free (tm).
  89
  90 However, if for some reason some bugs manage to find their way to the
  91 surface, please report them at once (after all, they ARE uncertified
  92 bugs!!!) The PROPER place to report these bugs is the SquirrelMail Bug
  93 Tracker.
  94
  95    http://www.squirrelmail.org/bugs
  96
  97 Thank you for your cooperation in that issue. That helps us to make
  98 sure that nothing slips through the cracks. Also, it would help if
  99 people would check existing tracker items for a bug before reporting
 100 it again. This would help to eliminate duplicate reports, and
 101 increase the time we can spend CODING by DECREASING the time we
 102 spend sorting through bug reports. And remember, check not only OPEN
 103 bug reports, but also closed ones as a bug that you report MAY have
 104 been fixed in CVS already.
 105
 106
 107 Important Note about PHP 4.1.0
 108 ==============================
 109
 110 First of all, let me say that you all HAVE been warned: the
 111 SquirrelMail Project Team is not supporting PHP 4.1.0 for the 1.2.0
 112 release. Basically, SquirrelMail was in the final death throws of
 113 this development series when the witty PHP folks decided to make the
 114 release of 4.1.0. Of course, we greatly appreciate their hard work! :)
 115
 116 However, we were too close to the end of this whole thing to be able
 117 to spend the week or two EXTRA that it will take to get SquirrelMail
 118 1.2 PHP 4.1.0 ready. This will, on the bright side, be a major
 119 priority amongst the team in the immediate future. At first look, it
 120 seems that 4.1.0 support should just require a collection of
 121 relatively minor tweaks. You can expect 4.1.0 support within 2-3
 122 weeks, as a part of a later 1.2.X release.
 123
 124
 125 Where are we going from here?
 126 =============================
 127
 128 After things cool down a bit and the smoke clears from 1.2,
 129 progress will begin on the Great SquirrelMail Rewrite, also known as
 130 the 1.3 development branch. This branch will eventually become the
 131 long talked about SquirrelMail 2.0. The major developmental emphasis
 132 for SquirrelMail 2.0 will be in making SquirrelMail more flexible
 133 and modular so that it might do a better job meeting the needs of
 134 our system administrators and end-users. We are greatly anticipating
 135 working in this area.
 136
 137 At the same time, we will kick start the SquirrelMail Teams. For
 138 some time now, we have been planning a reorganization of the project
 139 into a variety of sub-teams. Each sub-team will focus on a different
 140 aspect of SquirrelMail Project work. These teams will hopefully help
 141 keep the SquirrelMail project more on track and to provide some
 142 semblance of order. This project has grown so large in the past two
 143 years that an orderly structure is necessary if anything is to get
 144 done effectively. The teams (as planned) are as follows:
 145
 146    Stable Series Team:      Maintains the stable series
 147    Development Series Team: Works on the development series
 148    i18n Team:               Handles i18n (internationalization) work
 149    Plugin Team:             Manages the mass of plugins
 150    User Support Team:       Helps users with their problems
 151    Documentation Team:      Manages the documentation
 152    Evangelism Team:         Spreads the good news of SquirrelMail
 153
 154 Teams will be led by one or two SquirrelMail team members. And team
 155 members can participate in as many teams as he or she desires.
 156
 157 For the next few weeks, the developers will be working on bug-fixing
 158 and making the 1.2 series rock solid. After that, about mid January,
 159 focus will shift toward getting the teams in gear and starting work
 160 on the SquirrelMail 1.3 development series.
 161
 162
 163 About our Release Aliases - by Wouter Teepe
 164 =========================
 165
 166 Philippe, one of our main developers has been having quite some trouble
 167 with the health of his eyes. Though luckily it is not of a permanent
 168 nature, it is terrible enough. Essentially he had only one eye
 169 available when he was squashing many of the bugs that are fixed in this
 170 release.
 171
 172 However, more eyes have been helping in making this release
 173 possible. I'd also like to specially thank Bron Godwana, who traced a
 174 bug in the IMAP code - and fixed it.
 175
 176 See http://www.squirrelmail.org/wiki/SquirrelRelease for more details.
 177
 178                   Happy SquirrelMailing!
 179                     - The SquirrelMail Project Team