		       Tomcat 3.1 Release Plan

Objective: 

   The objective of 3.1 release is to enable us to demonstrate by
   ApacheCon substantial progress towards the goals of having a Tomcat
   that:

     (a) is better integrated with Apache.
     (b) is moving towards becoming a clear replacement to Apache
         JServ.
     (c) has more features that have been requested.

The Tomcat 3.1 release cycle has two intermediate milestones (with
"burn-in" periods for both) after which it will be qualified as Beta
by ApacheCon. 

Status:

* The following list outlines the changes to Tomcat done in the
  milestone cycles. All these features are newly implemented. They are
  at "beta" level and need testing and feedback.

	* Thread pooling.
	* IIS and NES connectors to Tomcat. (JNI and AJP based.)
	* Servlet reloading
	* Logging
	* Minimal admin tool
	* jspc - a command line tool to compile JSP to servlets.
	* Minimal implementation of security, including form-based
          and basic authentication.
	* Customizable server-configuration.
	* Automatic generation of Apache conf files.
	* Automatic loading of WAR files.
	* Changes to internal "APIs" to better support integration
          with Apache. Example, interceptors. 
	* Miscellaneous internal source code cleanup. 

Changes to the previous release plan:

* Mark the current Tomcat snapshot as "Beta". 
* Postpone the Tomcat final date by a month. The date is not set in
  stone; it just means that we will continue testing and fixing bugs
  and evaluate if we should call it final by that date.

Tomcat 3.1 Beta:

* Code freeze date: Mar 2
* Tag date: Mar 7
* Goals:
    * Cut a release which can be used to as the base for performing
      tests and reporting bugs. 
    * Evaluate and clean up as many bugs that are there
      jakarta.apache.org/bugs.
    * All internal APIs are mostly frozen. Exceptions will be made on
      a per-case basis and after discussion on tomcat-dev. 

Tomcat 3.1 Final:

* Code freeze date: April 2
* Tag date: April 7
* Goals:
    * Fix bugs reported on the beta and subsequent builds. 
    * Evaluate after the code freeze date if Tomcat is ready to be
      called "final".
    * Add more documentation and improve usability in general. 

* Release Manager: Sam Ruby <rubys@us.ibm.com>


