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  * 25 December 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    * About our release Aliases
  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 responsibility 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 sleek and unbloated and
  29 cuddly webmail application that we have all grown to love. Here is
  30 an incomplete list of new features and enhancements since the last
  31 stable release.
  32
  33   * Collapsible Folders - The folder list can be collapsed at any
  34           parent folder. This makes folder lists with large
  35           hierarchical 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           face-lift. The HTML has been largely overhauled, and while
  41           it still has the same general feel, it has been made more
  42           intuitive.
  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   * Ability 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 optimized
  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 the
  89 surface, please report them at once (after all, they ARE uncertified
  90 bugs!!!) The PROPER place to report these bugs is the SquirrelMail Bug
  91 Tracker.
  92
  93    http://www.squirrelmail.org/bugs
  94
  95 Thank you for your cooperation in that issue. That helps us to make
  96 sure that nothing slips through the cracks. Also, it would help if
  97 people would check existing tracker items for a bug before reporting
  98 it again. This would help to eliminate duplicate reports, and
  99 increase the time we can spend CODING by DECREASING the time we
 100 spend sorting through bug reports. And remember, check not only OPEN
 101 bug reports, but also closed ones as a bug that you report MAY have
 102 been fixed in CVS already.
 103
 104
 105 Important Note about PHP 4.1.0
 106 ==============================
 107
 108 First of all, let me say that you all HAVE been warned: the
 109 SquirrelMail Project Team is not supporting PHP 4.1.0 for the 1.2.0
 110 release. Basically, SquirrelMail was in the final death throws of
 111 this development series when the witty PHP folks decided to make the
 112 release of 4.1.0. Of course, we greatly appreciate their hard work! :)
 113
 114 However, we were too close to the end of this whole thing to be able
 115 to spend the week or two EXTRA that it will take to get SquirrelMail
 116 1.2.0 PHP 4.1.0 ready. This will, on the bright side, be a major
 117 priority amongst the team in the immediate future. At first look, it
 118 seems that 4.1.0 support should just require a collection of
 119 relatively minor tweaks. You can expect 4.1.0 support within 2-3
 120 weeks, as a part of a later 1.2.X release.
 121
 122
 123 Where are we going from here?
 124 =============================
 125
 126 After things cool down a bit and the smoke clears from 1.2.0,
 127 progress will begin on the Great SquirrelMail Rewrite, also known as
 128 the 1.3 development branch. This branch will eventually become the
 129 long talked about SquirrelMail 2.0. The major developmental emphasis
 130 for SquirrelMail 2.0 will be in making SquirrelMail more flexible
 131 and modular so that it might do a better job meeting the needs of
 132 our system administrators and end-users. We are greatly anticipating
 133 working in this area.
 134
 135 At the same time, we will kick start the SquirrelMail Teams. For
 136 some time now, we have been planning a reorganization of the project
 137 into a variety of sub-teams. Each sub-team will focus on a different
 138 aspect of SquirrelMail Project work. These teams will hopefully help
 139 keep the SquirrelMail project more on track and to provide some
 140 semblance of order. This project has grown so large in the past two
 141 years that an orderly structure is necessary if anything is to get
 142 done effectively. The teams (as planned) are as follows:
 143
 144    Stable Series Team:      Maintains the stable series
 145    Development Series Team: Works on the development series
 146    i18n Team:               Handles i18n (internationalization) work
 147    Plugin Team:             Manages the mass of plugins
 148    User Support Team:       Helps users with their problems
 149    Documentation Team:      Manages the documentation
 150    Evangelism Team:         Spreads the good news of SquirrelMail
 151
 152 Teams will be led by one or two SquirrelMail team members. And team
 153 members can participate in as many teams as he or she desires.
 154
 155 For the next few weeks, the developers will be working on bug-fixing
 156 and making the 1.2 series rock solid. After that, about mid January,
 157 focus will shift toward getting the teams in gear and starting work
 158 on the SquirrelMail 1.3 development series.
 159
 160
 161 About our Release Aliases - by Paul Joseph Thompson
 162 =========================
 163
 164 Most importantly, this release of SquirrelMail is dedicated to my
 165 wife and the new baby that she had on 13 December 2001, Miriam Noel
 166 Thompson.
 167
 168 See http://www.squirrelmail.org/wiki/SquirrelRelease for more details.
 169
 170                   Have a Merry Christmas!
 171                   Happy SquirrelMailing!
 172                     - The SquirrelMail Project Team