Repassage en 1.4_01

As is the case with every Minecraft update, we saw our usual influx of
extra traffic from people wondering if we have a build of CraftBukkit
working with the Minecraft update seconds after release (seriously).
Usually, you'd see a pretty standard post from me stating we're working
on an update and providing the usual advice that you aren't forced to
update. However, this time there was a distinct lack of communication
from the team regarding the status of the update, other than the usual
"we're working on it". Couple this with the slow development occurring
lately and we can forgive people for posting the expected "is Bukkit
dead?" or "what's going on?" posts. I hope this post will explain
everything.

Will there be a CraftBukkit for Minecraft 1.5?
Given the reports of showstopping bugs present in 1.5, there's a high
chance a new bugfix update for Minecraft will be out tomorrow or even
several times this week. As a result, it is unlikely we will be
releasing a 1.5 compatible build and, instead, will be waiting for
something stable to work with.

Due to the nature of the project and the methods we use to provide
Bukkit for Minecraft, any update - no matter how small - requires us to
figure out the mapping of obfuscated classes and update our code. This
takes a lot of time and work, so hopefully you understand our decision.

Having said all this, we recommend that you stay on 1.4 for a while until the patch storm subsides if your server depends on Bukkit.

Further, I wanted to apologise for the lack of communication regarding
this update. I was really hesitant announcing this since it would only
serve to disappoint and annoy people, however, I noticed quite a few
supportive comments on here and IRC that pushed me to post this
announcement because the people that have supported us through
everything deserve it.

Why are things so quiet? Why is the update taking so long?
Before I answer this, I think it is appropriate to cover what usually
happens when we're aware of an update coming soon. Whenever we recieve
word of a Minecraft update (which, contrary to popular belief, is
generally the same time as everyone else), we place all development in
the Bukkit project under a code freeze to prepare for the update and
make things easier. That being said, last week thursday we were
expecting a Minecraft update and appropriately placed the project under a
code freeze. Unfortunately, the update was delayed and pushed to the
next week, resulting in a much longer code freeze than normally occurs.
Naturally, this lead to activity within the project seeming critically
lower than it really was and prompted some people to post the inevitable
"what's going on?" thread.

On top of the code freeze, we're working on some larger changes to
Bukkit or CraftBukkit that require quite a bit of time to complete and
will only be commited to the public code when they are ready. Quite
often you'll find that, while you don't see any updates, we definitely
are still working hard programming awesome things and appreciate your
patience and support.

So why is this update taking so long? After we had updated for Minecraft
1.4, we came across some annoying chunk related issues and bugs that
were incredibly difficult to pinpoint due to confusion with the new
obfuscated names mappings (d -> c and c -> d). Naturally, these
kinds of issues were unacceptable for the project and we immediately got
to work on improving our update process to avoid issues of this nature
in the future. While I think we can all agree with this decision, the
unfortunate result is the delay we're currently facing since we're not
yet done improving the process. The good news is, we're nearly done
improving our update handling process and the wait will definitely be
worth it come future updates.

Thank you for your patience and understanding!