Today Barry Rosen announced on Twitter that Notes and Domino FP9 have been released on Fix Central and will be added to Passport Advantage next week. Considering that just last week the target date announced was 25th August, this continues the theme of releases ahead of published schedule we saw with FP8.
A look at the Release Notes shows something else, a code name for the release – Zircon. And Barry has also confirmed that FP10’s code name will be Mystic Topaz, continuing a theme of precious gems. I remember earlier in the year one of suggestions raised from the community was having names for releases, as products like Eclipse and others do. I’m yet to install, so I’m not sure if it’s visible on the splash screen of Notes or server console. But personally I think it’s a good thing to do, to help break away from the focus on fixes. Some may not like the names, but as the old adage goes, you can’t please all the people all of the time. Whatever the theme or chosen name from that theme, there will always be some who don’t like it. I prefer to embrace that a name was chosen rather than quibble about what each name is.
As others have said, Mystic Topaz will be the big release with the Java 8 compiler for XPages. Regardless of views about it not being in Zircon, my personal view (after continued delays to what was expected to be 9.0.2) is that it’s infinitely preferable to get releases out the door at the agreed timeframes rather than delay and deliver functionality when it’s ready rather than rush it.
