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Getting from here to there for WiX v3.8

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In my last post, I talked about the idea of a WiX v3.x stable series of releases to keep WiX v3.x going until and after WiX v4.x is first released. First up is WiX v3.8.

Remember the kind of work that’s in scope for the WiX v3.x series:

  • Bug fixes (of course)
  • Small features
  • Platform support (Windows/MSI and Visual Studio)

We already have a number of fixes and small features in WiX v3.8 and a few more of each already assigned to v3.8 in the WiX issues database. Biggest, however, is the upcoming platform support work known as Visual Studio 2013: Supporting Visual Studio 2013 with Votive integration and the WiX SDK is really important for the folks who will jump on that bandwagon quickly. It’s already available in a Preview release that’s provided with a go-live license. And on Monday, Microsoft shipped the RC release, also with a go-live license.

They also announced that Visual Studio 2013 RTM will ship on the same day as Windows 8.1 is generally available: 18-October.

And, oh look! It’s already mid-September.

So here are two stakes in the ground:

  1. We should ship WiX v3.8 by the end of the year. That’s within a 60-day window (approximately) after the release of Windows 8.1 and Visual Studio 2013. Due to the year-end holidays (plus Thanksgiving here in the US), the final release candidate should be released no later than Monday, 2-December. (We’ve generally given WiX releases a few weeks of “bake time” where we release a final release candidate, ask everyone to download and test, and wait to see if there’s a bug big and bad enough to fix and slip the release.)
  2. We should ship a reliable WiX v3.8 beta with Visual Studio 2013 support by Halloween. That’s within a couple of weeks of the Visual Studio 2013 RTM release on 18-October. We can start by supporting the Visual Studio 2013 RC release; it’s freely available and hopefully will be the same as RTM as far as WiX is concerned.

There are no code pixies

Currently, the only Visual Studio 2013 support in the WiX v3.8 branch on Codeplex is detection properties in WixVSExtension.

There’s a lot more to do and we need your help to get it done.

Rob and Mike, my fellow carry-overs from the Microsoft WiX Virtual Team days, are both focusing on WiX v4.0. As release manager, I’m committed to getting the WiX v3.8 release out as soon as is feasible. To hit any of the dates I outlined above, we need more than just me working on Visual Studio 2013 support and fixing bugs.

Look at the open issues for WiX v3.8 and join the discussion on the wix-devs mailing list and the weekly bug triage meetings.

Update: wixtoolset.org is back up!