diff --git a/minutes/_posts/2025-02-05-february-5-2025.md b/minutes/_posts/2025-02-05-february-5-2025.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c0a792 --- /dev/null +++ b/minutes/_posts/2025-02-05-february-5-2025.md @@ -0,0 +1,225 @@ +--- +layout: contact +--- + +# Minutes of the 34th meeting of the Scala Center, Q4 2024 + +Minutes are [archived](https://scala.epfl.ch/records.html) on the +Scala Center website. + +## Summary + +The following agenda was distributed to attendees: +[agenda](https://github.com/scalacenter/advisoryboard/blob/main/agendas/034-2024-q4.md). + +Center activities for the past quarter focused on Scala 3 maintenance, +the Scala 3 language specification, Scala.js maintenance, the Scala +Improvement Process, sbt 2, the new Scala Highlights newsletter, +Google of Summer Code, Scala Advent of Code, compiler sprees, Scala +Days, and fundraising. + +Details are below and in the Center's activity report: + +* [report](https://scala.epfl.ch/records/2024-Q4-activity-report.html) + +One new proposal was received this quarter: + +* [SCP-034](https://github.com/scalacenter/advisoryboard/blob/main/proposals/034-artifact-publishing.md): Artifact publishing + +After discussion, the board decided to postpone any formal vote on it. + +Other topics covered included officer elections; officers remained +unchanged. + +## Date, Time and Location + +The meeting took place virtually on Wednesday, February 5, 2025 at +16:15 (UTC). + +Minutes were taken by Seth Tisue (secretary). + +## Attendees + +The company formerly known as Lightbend is now called Akka. Lukas +Rytz is still the Akka representative, but he was unavailable for this +meeting so Seth filled in. + +Officers: + +* Chris Kipp (chairperson), community +* Darja Jovanovic (executive director), EPFL +* Sébastien Doeraene (interim technical director), EPFL +* Martin Odersky (technical advisor), EPFL +* Seth Tisue (secretary), Akka + +Board members: + +* Zainab Ali, community representative +* Krzysztof Romanowski, VirtusLab (substituting for Krzysztof Borowski) +* Dmitrii Naumenko, JetBrains +* Seth Tisue, Akka (substituting for Lukas Rytz) +* Eugene Yokota, community representative + +Apologies: + +* Daniela Sfregola, Morgan Stanley + +## Technical report + +Séb, as interim technical director, summarized Scala Center activities +since the last meeting. His remarks were based on the Center's more +detailed Q4 quarterly activity report: + +* [report](https://scala.epfl.ch/records/2024-Q4-activity-report.html) + +And the Center's 2025 Q1 roadmap: + +* [roadmap](https://scala.epfl.ch/records/2025-Q1-roadmap.html) + +The following notes do not repeat the contents of the report and +roadmap, but only supplement them. + +Séb noted that at its current staffing level the Center is currently +doing at least as much organizing and community work as technical +work. + +A board member asked where Scala.js's WebAssembly back end stands. +Séb said that optimizing the back end is still pending. Closures in +particular are not optimized yet. Martin added that stable exceptions +support in WebAssembly in browsers is another pending issue preventing +the Center's work on this from being quite ready yet for use in common +scenarios. + +There was some technical discussion about how the Scala 3 debugger +would be packaged to be consumed by IntelliJ and other tools. Also, +an officer asked about the debugger code moving into the main Scala 3 +repo; does that mean that fixes require a new language release? Séb +said yes, but that code is now stable enough now for it to be worth +it. + +## Scala 2 report + +This was presented by Seth. + +Scala Newsletter is out today, and covers both Scala 3 and Scala 2. +Let us know what you think, as this will be the template for future +issues, which will be published quarterly. + +Since the last meeting, we published a blog post about our Scala 2 +maintenance plans. Note that 2.12 is now under minimal maintenance. + +Scala 2.13.15 and 2.13.16 came out since the last meeting. Changes +were modest and focused on compatibility, on supporting Scala 3 +migration, and on improvements to warnings and linting. There have +been no 2.13.16 regression reports, so if anyone was holding back on +upgrading, I'd say go ahead. + +As usual, we've opened threads on the Contributors forum for +discussing plans for the next releases: + +* 2.13.17: https://contributors.scala-lang.org/t/scala-2-13-17-release-planning/6994 +* 2.12.21: https://contributors.scala-lang.org/t/scala-2-12-21-release-planning/6753 + +We plan for +[SIP-51](https://docs.scala-lang.org/sips/drop-stdlib-forwards-bin-compat.html) +(resuming making additions to the standard library) to be a theme +for 2.13.17. + +An officer asked: if the primary motivation for maintaining 2.12 is sbt 1, +does that mean that when sbt 2 comes out, 2.12 be EOLed? Seth +responded: perhaps eventually, but not right away. We are assuming a +longer timeframe since sbt 1 will remain in wide use for some time yet +to come, even once sbt 2 is available. + +## SCP-034: Artifact publishing + +Eugene summarized [the +proposal](https://github.com/scalacenter/advisoryboard/blob/main/proposals/034-artifact-publishing.md). + +Séb expressed support; "it seems like a sensible thing to do". One +board member wondered if maintainers would be sufficiently motivated +to migrate to a shared implementation. Another member asked if there's +a particular current implementation that would be the basis of the +shared one; there was no simple, single answer. + +The rest of the discussion centered on whether the Center would have +enough engineering resources this year to lead this. In the end, the +board decided not to formally vote on it now, but revisit the proposal +later. Chris suggested that Eugene amend the proposal to reflect +today's discussion. + +## Elections + +For chairperson, Chris Kipp indicated his willingness to continue as +chair and was elected unanimously. (Chairs are not required to serve +past one year, but a willing chair is welcome to serve for longer.) + +Also re-elected without any other nominations being made were Martin +Odersky (technical advisor) and Seth Tisue (secretary). + +## Community report + +This section was led by Zainab and Eugene. + +Zainab said the London community is currently strong, with more events +occurring, with attendance up as well. The London Scala group is now +doing open-source hack days and women-in-Scala meetings, in addition +to the usual meetups with speakers. ScalaBridge has received feedback +that it could devote more time to setup and tooling, as that usually +causes participants more trouble than the language itself. + +Eugene noted that X (aka Twitter) is no longer as universal a source +of news and discussion; some users remain but others have dispersed to +Bluesky and/or Mastodon. He said that as a result, the Scala Reddit is +even more important to the community than before, and the discussions +and engagement there have been strong recently (including topics about +education and training). + +He also observed that there have been several extremely active +language design discussions recently, such as the one about collection +literals. There was some discussion among the board about how these +proposals and discussions can best be framed and structured, to +encourage high quality engagement and ensure that people feel heard. + +There was some also some discussion on how to better coordinate +language changes with tooling maintainers, including the recent +introduction of the concept of "preview" features as an intermediate +state between "experimental" and completed. + +One board member expressed a wish for Scala people (perhaps even +Center members) to more present at non-Scala conferences, representing +Scala outside of our own community. + +There was some discussion around how having a smaller engineering +staff may change community perception of the Center. There was general +agreement that our publicity should focus on what advances are +happening and not too much on exactly where they happened (except, of +course, to give credit where credit is due!). That's part of the idea +behind the new Scala Highlights newsletter, which is assembled by the +Center, but isn't restricted to presenting the Center's own +activities. + +## Management and financial report + +Darja said that a major piece of news since the last meeting was the +publication in October of the new Scala governance and "development +guarantees" documents, as described in [this blog +post](https://www.scala-lang.org/news/new-governance.html). + +Also very important, the publication of the first issue of [Scala +Highlights](https://www.scala-lang.org/highlights/2025/02/06/highlights-2024.html). +The first issue covers all of 2024; future issues will have quarterly +news. + +The Center's finances have improved thanks to one-time donations and +assistance from several sources. Regardless, hiring additional staff +would require additional funding. Fundraising efforts are ongoing. + +The Center is also still in the process of reviving Scala Days for +later in 2025. (Later, after the meeting, plans were finalized and +[August 2025 dates were announced](https://www.scala-lang.org/blog/2025/02/18/announcing-scala-days-2025.html).) + +## Conclusion + +The next meeting will be held online, probably in April. If possible, +a late-summer or fall meeting will be held in-person at EPFL. diff --git a/records.md b/records.md index 6f0e659..0cbd413 100644 --- a/records.md +++ b/records.md @@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ in the [Projects page]({% link projects.md %}). ### Board meeting minutes +- [February 5, 2025 - Thirty-Fourth SC Advisory Board Meeting](/minutes/2025/02/05/february-5-2025.html) - [April 25, 2024 - Thirty-Second SC Advisory Board Meeting](/minutes/2024/04/25/april-25-2024.html) - [February 7, 2024 - Thirty-First SC Advisory Board Meeting](/minutes/2024/02/07/february-7-2024.html) - [October 17, 2023 - Thirtieth SC Advisory Board Meeting](/minutes/2023/10/17/october-17-2023.html)