meeting memo for an async meeting

We can't meet in real time this time, and it's been a long time since
the previous meeting, so we'll try an async meeting via an MR and
comments on the MR.

Sponsored-by: author

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+[[!meta title="Iteration planning: September 11–24"]]
+[[!meta date="2022-09-11 18:15:00 +0300"]]
+[[!tag meeting]]
+
+[[!toc levels=2]]
+
+# Actions from last time
+
+- **NOT DONE** Daniel to open an issue with Cargo to discuss binary-only dependencies.
+- **SKIPPED** Lars to prepare an abstract and outline for a talk for EuroRust for us to
+  review and make a decision about whether or not to submit at the next meeting.
+  - see below
+- **DONE** Lars to use his new tool to produce a list of dependencies which Subplot
+  has, which are not currently met by the packages in Debian.
+  - list was shared on the Matrix channel
+
+# Assessment of the iteration that has ended
+
+We extended, by mutual agreement on Matrix, this iteration was extended
+by four weeks. Life and work intruded.
+
+We had chosen the following issues for this iteration:
+
+- **DONE** [[!subplotissue 290]] -- _Cargo.toml: homepage URL is wrong_
+- **NOT DONE** [[!webissue 4]] -- _Review FAQ_
+- **DONE** [[!subplotissue 283]] -- _YAML metadata is not in its own
+  file_
+  - there is an MR: ([[!mr 287]]
+- **NOT DONE** [[!subplotissue 287]] -- _Needs documentation for Rust
+  step functions for implementing contexts_
+
+Lars feels good about having finally gotten the YAML metadata change
+done. However, we've slowed down with Subplot development and may need
+to do something. Most of the reason for slowing down is work and life
+requiring attention, but we don't feel like want to give up on either.
+
+
+# Discussion
+
+## EuroRust in October in Berlin
+
+Lars did not have time to propose a talk at the conference, and
+decided he can't afford to go at his own expense, so Subplot won't be
+at that EuroRust.
+
+## The gitlab.com hosting situation
+
+We reviewed [the billing
+page](https://gitlab.com/groups/subplot/-/billings) for Subplot on
+gitlab.com. It all looks OK. We're over the limit on seats, but it
+seems we can increase the seats for free.
+
+We will review the billing page every iteration or two.
+
+## Repository review
+
+We reviewed issues updated since the previous
+meeting, merge requests, and CI pipelines for all the projects in the
+[Subplot group](https://gitlab.com/subplot) on gitlab.com.
+
+### [Subplot Container Images](https://gitlab.com/subplot/subplot-container-images)
+
+- Open issues: 1
+- Merge requests: 0
+- Additional branches: 0
+- CI: OK, ran on Friday
+
+### [subplot-web](https://gitlab.com/subplot/subplot-web)
+
+- Open issues: 1
+- Merge requests: 1 (this meeting)
+- Additional branches: 1 (this meeting)
+- CI: Ick, OK.
+
+### [subplot](https://gitlab.com/subplot/subplot)
+
+- Open issues: 52, we didn't review issues much
+- Merge requests: 0
+- Additional branches:
+  - `docgen-cmark`, Lars is keeping this around for reference for
+    future changes
+- CI: OK
+
+## Recurring items issues
+
+There are some issues tagged
+[`recurring-agenda-item`](https://gitlab.com/groups/subplot/-/issues/?sort=created_asc&state=opened&label_name%5B%5D=recurring-agenda-item&first_page_size=20)
+in the issue tracker, which we discuss in every iteration meeting.
+
+- [[!subplotissue 119]] -- _Subplot is in not in Debian unstable_
+  - we will work on reducing Subplot dependencies that aren't already
+    in Debian
+- [[!subplotissue 272]] -- _Migrate project to issue-based iteration
+  meetings_
+  - we will try a "merge request based approach" instead, for a few
+    iterations
+  - Lars has tried this in the Obnam project and it has worked OK
+  - Daniel agrees that so far this feels better.
+  - We will try for another iteration or two, before deciding.
+- [[!subplotissue 273]] -- _Perform whole-codebase review and cleanup_
+  - we are not up to doing this yet
+
+# Goals
+
+## Goal 3: Current goal
+
+Subplot is altered to treat a YAML document as the root of any subplot
+document, permitting multiple markdown files to be joined into a
+single scenario set or output document. We remove our dependency on
+Pandoc’s AST for internal document representation, and support a
+better range of document metadata as a result. We will use marked data
+types where possible to permit better provenance information in error
+and warning messages; and we will strive to reenable the reference
+tests such that we can make a statement to the effect that post goal
+3, we do not intend to make further breaking changes to the input
+formats or primary behaviours of Subplot.
+
+([Related issues on gitlab](https://gitlab.com/subplot/subplot/-/issues?label_name%5B%5D=goal%3A%3A3))
+
+## Goal 4: Planned
+
+This goal is very likely to change. This is merely an initial sketch.
+
+We'll improve documentation and generally aim at making Subplot more
+plausibly usable by people outside of the Subplot project.
+
+([Related issues on gitlab](https://gitlab.com/subplot/subplot/-/issues?label_name%5B%5D=goal%3A%3A4))
+
+# Plan for new iteration
+
+## Issues
+
+We intend to work on the following issues:
+
+- [[!webissue 4]] -- _Review FAQ_
+- [[!subplotissue 287]] -- _Needs documentation for Rust step
+  functions for implementing contexts_
+- [[!subplotissue 298]] -- _Needs a release with the external YAML
+  metadata file support_
+
+## Actions
+
+These are in addition to work on issues chosen for this iteration.
+
+* Lars to look at what it would take to use the `pulldown_cmark`
+  parser for Markdown, instead of Pandoc, and make a concrete proposal
+  of how to approach that.
+* Lars to discuss Subplot dependencies that aren't packaged in Debian,
+  and propose concrete steps to reduce the delta.
+* Daniel to open an issue with Cargo to discuss binary-only dependencies.
+
+
+# Meeting participants
+
+- Daniel Silverstone
+- Lars Wirzenius