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authorlloyd <lloyd@randombit.net>2015-01-08 13:23:54 +0000
committerlloyd <lloyd@randombit.net>2015-01-08 13:23:54 +0000
commitc0de1f06d4522f3d1f114fdf2f5566467f495525 (patch)
treefa92103404b035f8766c9dde2b485f8f1bf9d23f /doc
parent89d6002286e4a1120fc544c70b0bb483e50bf634 (diff)
Add a sketch of a support roadmap
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+
+Botan Development Roadmap
+========================================
+
+Branch Stucture
+----------------------------------------
+
+Stability of branches is indicated by even or odd minor version numbers. The
+minor number of the primary trunk is always odd and devel releases and
+snapshots are made directly from it. Every once in a while a new even-numbered
+branch is forked. All development continues on the main trunk, with fixes and
+occasionally small features backported to the stable branch. Stability of API
+and ABI is very important in the stable branches, whereas in trunk ABI changes
+happen with no warning and API changes are made whenever it would serve the
+ends of justice.
+
+Current Status
+----------------------------------------
+
+Currently (as of 2015-01-08) trunk is numbered 1.11 and is written in C++11,
+unlike earlier versions which used C++98. In due time a new stable 2.0 branch
+will be made off of trunk and afterwards trunk will be renumbered as 2.1. The
+2.0 releases will be maintained with security and bug fixes at least until a
+new 2.2 stable branch is created and likely for some time afterwards. In the
+last decade the length of time between new stable trees being created has been
+between 23 and 41 months, suggesting a support lifetime of 2-4 years for 2.0.x.
+
+The 1.10 stable tree is, well, stable. There isn't enough project time to
+backport all of the nice features from 1.11 (eg TLS v1.2, GCM, OCB, or
+McEliece) to 1.10, even where it could be done while maintaining API/ABI
+compat. The C++11 transition makes it especially hard for the 1.10/1.11
+split. So if 1.10 does what you want now it probably will next week, but it
+won't ever do much beyond that. If you want any feature or optimization or side
+channel resistance added in the last 4 years you have to use 1.11. 1.10 will
+continue to be maintained at the current level for at least a year after 2.0 is
+released.
+
+1.8 and all older versions are no longer maintained.
+
+Supported Targets
+----------------------------------------
+
+The primary supported target (ie, what the main developer uses and tests with
+regularly) is a recent GCC or Clang on Linux with an x86-64 CPU. Occasionally
+Linux systems using POWER, MIPS, and ARM processors are also checked. Testing
+and fixes for Windows, MinGW, OS X, OpenBSD, Visual C++, iOS, etc comes
+primarily from users.
+
+Ongoing Issues
+----------------------------------------
+
+Currently sources are kept in :doc:`Monotone <vcs>`, which likely discourages
+some would-be developers. The github mirror may be helping somewhat here.
+
+Some infrastructure, scripts and such still exists only on the machines of the
+primary developer.
+
+Documentation could always use help. Many things are completely undocumented,
+few things are documented well.