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AROS 1.0 Roadmap

Abstract

This is a roadmap intended to outline the requirements that need to be fulfilled before AROS 1.0 can be released. It is not meant to force developers to work on certain things (since it's not possible in an open source project anyway) but should rather be seen as a recommendation where we would like people to focus their efforts. Hopefully, this will help organize the development effort and make us all work more in the same direction.

Ports

For AROS 1.0 to be released, these requirements must be fulfilled by the i386-pc and i386-linux ports (referred to as "mandatory ports" below). Other ports are not seen as required for 1.0, to keep the amount of work down.

Overall status

As of 2009-07-04:

The main goal of AmigaOS 3.1 source compatibility is nearing completion. Several modules are still missing, but most of them will not be required to reach the goal. Out of 10 roadmap requirements, 2 are completed, 1 is skipped, 6 are in progress and 1 is not started.

Looking closer at the requirements in progress, the greatest amounts of programming work are required to implement the ABI_V1 and to complete Zune - the GUI toolkit.

Concerning the documentation, both topics (developer and user) require more work to reach completion. From developer standpoint, a set of documents outlining creation of basic software components is required. User documentation needs to focus on installation and configuration.

Next review of AROS 1.0 Roadmap: December 2009

Requirements

  1. AmigaOS 3.1 API compatibility

    We exclude parts which are deemed to be non-portable or obsolete and not worth the effort and implement the remaining API.

    To mark something as obsolete even though it is possible to implement in a portable way should require good reasons; for example if it is very rarely used by applications and the effort required to implement it is substantial.

    Current status: In Progress, 81% Completed, see Status page

    Current recommendations: see Recommendations

  2. Partial AmigaOS 3.5 and 3.9 API compatibility

    We choose the parts that we feel are useful and worthwhile to have, and ditch the rest. For example, it seems very unlikely that we want ReAction compatibility since we have already chosen to standardize on Zune for the GUI toolkit (and implementing the ReAction API is not a trivial undertaking).

    Some parts of 3.5 and 3.9 are already implemented. They can be found in Extensions section of Status page

    Current status: Skipped

    Reasoning: This goal is defined a in way that does not allow benchmarking its completeness.

  3. Completed GUI toolkit

    This means Zune must have complete MUI 3.8 API compatibility and a finished preferences program.

    Current status: In Progress, see Zune page

    Current recommendations: see Recommendations

  4. Standard applications comparable to those which come with AmigaOS 3.1

    This does not mean that we have to have the exact same applications which work exactly the same as in AmigaOS, but the functionality available to the user should be roughly equivalent.

    Current status: In Progress, 73% Completed, see Programs page

    Current recommendations: see Recommendations

  5. Sound support

    API compatibility and basic applications. There should be at least one driver for each mandatory port.

    Current status: Completed

    Reasoning: Currently AHI is ported, and there are some drivers (a few) for i386-port. AHI Preferences editor as well as MP3 player are available.

  6. Networking support

    This includes a TCP/IP-stack and some basic applications, like email and SSH clients, and also a web browser. There should be at least one NIC driver for each mandatory port.

    The requirements on the web browser should not be high, but it should be possible to at least browse the web in some way.

    Current status: Completed

    Reasoning: AROSTCP we got now is an ancient but working implementation of the AmiTCP stack. There are several network drivers available for both real hardware and Linux hosted TAP device. The AROSTCP preferences editor is available. Network applications are available: ftp client, IRC client, mail program, modern web browser, etc.

  7. Self-hosted development environment and SDK for developers

    Specifically, this includes all software required to build AROS, like GCC, GNU binutils, GNU make and the rest. It must be possible to compile AROS on AROS.

    The ABI for the supported architectures (only i386 at this point) must be finalized before 1.0. Once 1.0 is released, the ABI should be stable for a considerable time.

    Current status: In Progress

    Current recommendations: see Recommendations

  8. Comprehensive documentation for developers

    This includes reference manuals over all libraries, devices, classes and development tools and also guides and tutorials to introduce whole subsystems and give an overview. Also, a migration/porting guide should be available.

    Current status: In Progress

    Current recommendations: see Recommendations

  9. Comprehensive documentation for users

    This includes a complete command reference, tutorials, and an installation guide and a configuration guide, as well as other guides.

    Current status: In Progress

    Current recommendations: see Recommendations

    Reasoning: Documentation exists and has extensively been translated to different languages. To be complete, the tutorials and guides, and the help system are needed.

  10. Substantial testing and bug hunting complete

    The 1.0 release should be virtually free of bugs, and be a very stable release. We should not have the fiascos some open source projects have had with their ".0" releases.

    This will probably require an extended feature freeze, followed by a code freeze and several intermediate milestones for user feedback and testing.

    Feature requests are not regarded as bugs, unless it is something required (but missed) in the preceding milestones. For example, "we need a movie player" does not qualify, but "the text editor should have a 'save' menu option" does.

    Current status: Not Started

    Current recommendations: see Recommendations

    Reasoning: Currently no freeze can be done as features aren't complete yet. There is still lot of unfixed bugs, but increasing users activity looks promising. Bug hunting and accounting procedures and services are wanted.


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