Release of 0.18

[brjhaverkamp]

As for the Py3. In my opinion the main problem we now have (as the general Porting to Py3 effort has basically ended) is the end users aren't using Py3 builds in daily routine. And hence don't report Py3 related issues they might experience.

Long story short FreeCAD 0.18 will highly likely end up having (some minor and mayor) Py3 issues. And we can't do much about it ATM. At least not from FreeCAD 0.18 release point of view. Some (if and when reported) Py3 issues can still get resolved. I guess. But i feel that we shouldn't have the impression FreeCAD 0.18 shouldn't be released before "all" minor and mayor Py3 issues get resolved. As that just ain't going to happen in a month or two.

In order to get more testers in the field, would it be an idea to make an 0.18 RC 1? Make a RC release and publish this on the website when it is deemed stable enough for most practical use. I am definitely willing to test it in that case. But sofar I have steered away from daily releases, as I have no idea about their stability. And I think a lot of amateur users are holding off likewise. A "formal" test release would drive the number of testers and hence the bug reports.

Regards,

Bert

[chrisb]

But sofar I have steered away from daily releases, as I have no idea about their stability.

0.18 has been for weeks if not months more stable than every 0.17 version. Go for it!

[Kunda1]

As for the Py3. In my opinion the main problem we now have (as the general Porting to Py3 effort has basically ended) is the end users aren't using Py3 builds in daily routine. And hence don't report Py3 related issues they might experience.

Long story short FreeCAD 0.18 will highly likely end up having (some minor and mayor) Py3 issues. And we can't do much about it ATM. At least not from FreeCAD 0.18 release point of view. Some (if and when reported) Py3 issues can still get resolved. I guess. But i feel that we shouldn't have the impression FreeCAD 0.18 shouldn't be released before "all" minor and mayor Py3 issues get resolved. As that just ain't going to happen in a month or two.

Maybe this merits a sort of parallel updating of minor releases for 0.18 along with 0.19dev (sort of how GIMP is releasing). I know we've talked about an annual release cycle but due to the good point that triplus brought up, we most likely will need to update 0.18 several times in it's lifetime. Which brings up the point that if we tag minor releases then all the downstream outlets that look at our GitHub tags will all (theoretically) be on the same page AKA distributing the correct minor version of 0.18. As opposed to what we have now which is several downstream package repos distributing different revision numbers of 0.17

[triplus]

In order to get more testers in the field, would it be an idea to make an 0.18 RC 1? Make a RC release and publish this on the website when it is deemed stable enough for most practical use. I am definitely willing to test it in that case. But sofar I have steered away from daily releases, as I have no idea about their stability. And I think a lot of amateur users are holding off likewise. A "formal" test release would drive the number of testers and hence the bug reports.

Regards,

Bert

Hi Bert.

For a while now Conda based Py3/Qt5 binaries are provided on a daily/weekly basis (for Linux and Windows):

https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/releases

Not much else can be done from our side for now. I guess. In FreeCAD 0.19 development cycle we will just need to be more vocal. To encourage more end users to use/test Py3/Qt5 builds in daily routine (and report potential issues).

[looo]

Are the daily Ubuntu packages ready to be switched to py3? I guess this would be the best way to get as much feedback as possible.

[abdullah]

I guess this would be the best way to get as much feedback as possible.

+1.

[NormandC]

Are the daily Ubuntu packages ready to be switched to py3?

FYI a freecad-python3 package is already available in the daily PPA since August 13 but is unusable. You can launch it, but you can't do anything with it.

A short list:

• The Navigation Indicator is missing. In the Report view, the following message appears:

  During initialization the error Cannot load sip module occurred in /usr/lib/freecad-python3/Mod/Tux/InitGui.py

• Part primitives can be created but appear in the 3D view only as a dot centred in the window.
• Consequently, Part Booleans are unavailable.
• Arch and Draft fail to initialize.
• Impossible to create a Sketch, after the Select plane dialog, I get a pop up Exception error

  Extension: Extension type not set

• Creating a PartDesign Body generates a pop up Exception error

  GeoFeatureGroupExtension can only be applied to GeoFeatures

I already mentioned some of these issues to kkremitzki months ago. He did mention this package should be considered as a technology preview, and that there were packaging bugs. He apparently didn't work on it further.

https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?p=250165

So please, don't switch the main freecad-daily package to python3 just yet, instead work on the freecad-python3 package and its dependencies to make it minimally usable, or many daily PPA users will be quite shocked when they end up with an utterly broken daily package.

[fosselius]

Yea, noticed the GeoFeatureGroupExtension issue in the repo. Tried to build py3/qt5 but got py3 binding issues that i have yet to resolve.. probably missing dependancy or missing/wrong path defines. Is there any good build instructions? Had a quick look at the python3 thread but did not see any clear dependancy list and build instructions..

[triplus]

Py3/Qt5 PPA builds will likely start emerging only for new Ubuntu releases. In the next year or two. Such as Ubuntu Disco Dingo and above. That is once PySide 2 situation finally settles (Debian). @kkremitzki likely knows best, when it comes to such predictions.

P.S. Anyway Py3 won't gear the release of FreeCAD 0.18. Therefore best to start focusing on other areas. That is if FreeCAD 0.18 release should really happen this year. It's i guess time to start making a list of the things that need to get done and to achieve that.

[looo]

FYI a freecad-python3 package is already available in the daily PPA since August 13 but is unusable. You can launch it, but you can't do anything with it.

I tried to installed this one but somehow this never worked for me. I guess one of the main problems we have is that installing two versions of python, two versions of qt and two versions of FreeCAD will lead to a quite difficult dependency mix which is very difficult to handle. In the ideal world there exist only one version of every package in a system/environment. So I guess we are waiting for a py3-only ubuntu.

So please, don't switch the main freecad-daily package to python3 just yet, instead work on the freecad-python3 package and its dependencies to make it minimally usable, or many daily PPA users will be quite shocked when they end up with an utterly broken daily package.

In my eyes the daily ppa shouldn't be as stable as it currently is. A release doesn't make much sense if you can also use very stable daily builds... But I understand the issues and I have to admit, that I didn't want to work on things like ubuntu-packaging. But we should have a plan how to switch the ppa to py3 and which distro should be targeted. For example what has to be done to make the daily ppa use py3 by default for ubuntu-19.04? Is this feasible?

Yea, noticed the GeoFeatureGroupExtension issue in the repo. Tried to build py3/qt5 but got py3 binding issues that i have yet to resolve.. probably missing dependancy or missing/wrong path defines. Is there any good build instructions? Had a quick look at the python3 thread but did not see any clear dependancy list and build instructions..

dependencies:
https://github.com/conda-forge/freecad- ... a.yaml#L22

build instructions:
https://github.com/conda-forge/freecad- ... ild.sh#L17

But I can't tell you how to compile FreeCAD for system xy. If you want to install it on your system it's maybe best to install docker and try to compile in an isolated container to prevent you from difficulties with any installed packages.

@kkremitzki :
What are the issueZ with pyside2? We do not have many pyside2-issues on conda, so I guess this is to due any newer qt-version or packaging?

P.S. Anyway Py3 won't gear the release of FreeCAD 0.18. Therefore best to start focusing on other areas. That is if FreeCAD 0.18 release should really happen this year. It's i guess time to start making a list of the things that need to get done and to achieve that.

If so, we should make the conda-based py3/qt5 builds also available as release and proudly announce this in any release statement. Shocked users than always can use the py2-builds, but we still need more testers and more people work on py3.

Another year without py3 means another year where I won't be part of the release...