[DISCUSS] Samza 1.3 release

[Hai Lu <lh...@apache.org>]

Hi all,

It's been some time since our last release and we have accumulated some
good features/improvements which call for a new 1.3 release.

Want to kick off the discussion in the open source forum while we have
already tested many of these changes internally at LinkedIn.

As a quick highlight of the release, it includes many improvements on Samza
SQL, table API, etc. As well as a critical at least once bug fix for
aggregation.

A comprehensive list of changes (jira tickets) can be found here:
https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SAMZA-2356?jql=project%20%3D%20%22SAMZA%22%20and%20fixVersion%20in%20(1.3)

The list was compiled based on the committed log on the already created 1.3.0
branch <https://github.com/apache/samza/tree/1.3.0>

*To everyone, any potential changes/patches that need to be cherry-picked
into 1.3.0 branch, please remember to put 1.3 as the "fix version" in the
jira ticket.*

I will move forward to generate the binary and target a release vote later
this week or early next week, if everyone agrees on the plan for release.

Thanks,
Hai