[ANNOUNCE] Weekly community update #50

[Till Rohrmann <tr...@apache.org>]

Dear community,

this is the weekly community update thread #50. Please post any news and
updates you want to share with the community to this thread.

# Unified core API for streaming and batch

The community started to discuss how to bring streaming and batch closer
together by implementing a common Operator abstraction on which both stream
and batch operators can run [1]. The discussion is still in its early stage
but you should subscribe to this thread if you want to stay up to date.

# Flink backward compatibility

Thomas started a while ago a discussion about Flink's backwards
compatibility which should not only include its APIs because Flink is used
by more and more third party applications [2]. As Stephan and Chesnay
mentioned, backwards compatibility should also be guaranteed for the client
APIs and data structures (e.g. job specification).

# Enhance convenience of TableEnvironment in Table API/SQL

Jincheng started a discussion on how to improve the TableEnvironment usage
from a user's perspective. At the moment the existing inheritance structure
can be confusing to users. He, thus, proposes to change this structure to
have more meaningful names for the user [3].

# Creating Flink 1.5.6

The community discussed whether to release a last bug fix release 1.5.6 for
the 1.5.x release branch [4]. So far the unanimous feedback is positive and
in favour of creating a last 1.5.6 release.

# Usage of Flink's Python API

The community started a survey of the usage of Flink's Python APIs [5].
Please join this discussion if you want to tell how you are using Flink's
Python APIs and how it could be improved.

[1]
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/2746759af3c92091bb743cfe028c90777f8011a064bb95e65b1fb951@%3Cdev.flink.apache.org%3E
[2]
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/064c75c5d10f0806095b14f6d76942598917a14429c1acbddd151fe2@%3Cdev.flink.apache.org%3E
[3]
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/99059c90a0a1b59a4f18a5a0fdb73e17071b17bbb036649a48bb233b@%3Cdev.flink.apache.org%3E
[4]
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/b740feb190fd63db3d15bfe0399097d905ea49fad83ce9ccf4c070cd@%3Cdev.flink.apache.org%3E
[5]
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/348366080d6b87bf390efb98e5bf268620ab04a0451f8459e2f466cd@%3Cdev.flink.apache.org%3E

Cheers,
Till