055. 40 days to GATK 40

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created by Geraldine_VdAuwera

on 2017-12-02

Release log, stardate holy crap it’s December 1st.

As we announced a little while back, GATK version 4.0 will be released into general availability on January 9, 2018. That means we have ~~40 days left, or is it 39 given the hour at which I’m posting this~~… Actually it’s 38, since the day of the release itself shouldn’t really count. But then there’s all the weekends and the holiday break of course, so that leaves us with… Aaaaah someone please get me a stiff drink.

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Ahem. Sorry for the momentary lapse into panic mode. Long story short, we still have quite a bit of work to do in the time we have left. The tools themselves are basically ready, and many of them are already running in our production pipelines; what remains to be done is essentially the wrapping, tidying up and organizing documentation materials that is needed to ensure that people can actually use all these lovely new tools once they go into full public release. Some of this work is difficult to do ahead of time when the tools are under active development, so most of that is going to happen over the next two weeks.

We’re also preparing a little surprise that, if we can pull it off, will make it a lot easier for everyone to try out the new pipelines and get ready to upgrade. More on that in an upcoming blog post, once we have more certainty that we can achieve what we’re aiming for.

In practice, this documentation frenzy is going to have two likely consequences. One is that responses on the forum will probably be a bit slower than usual while our efforts are focused on gearing up for launch. We’re hoping that the season will actually play in our favor here, as many in the Northern hemisphere shift into exams + holiday period and in the Southern hemisphere, summer vacation I suppose? The other consequence is that you may see some things changing on the website and in the forum documentation sections. We’ll do our best to minimize disruptions of course.

Finally, I want to give you a heads up that we’re going to be rolling out a series of regular news updates and informational content running up to Jan. 9, right on this blog, so please stay tuned!

From SkyWarrior on 2017-12-02

Probably the longest 38 days for us and the shortest 38 days for you guys. Good luck. The whole community is rooting for you all!

From MattB on 2017-12-05

Hope you all get some time off over the festive period! Looking forward to GATK 4

From EADG on 2017-12-05

Fantastic 4, Bridge 4, 4 bases, seems nothing can go wrong… maybe you can realize it on the 4th of January.

Or we will end up with 3.9…ah just kidding :)

From Geraldine_VdAuwera on 2017-12-05

Hah don’t even joke about that @EADG, technically we still need to cut a patch version of 3.8… But I solemnly swear no 3.9 will ever see the light of day ;)