KDL wishlist

All,

For some time now the user base of KDL has been expanding significantly,
and the use cases are becoming increasingly more complex. Practical
experience is showing that parts of the KDL API are difficult to extend in
a modular fashion. A particular example that has been quite active recently
is that of Inverse Kinematics solvers [1, 2, 3], where extensions
frequently end up resorting to code duplication and little reuse. Apart
from the obvious problem of maintaining fragmented extensions that do make
it upstream, many just don't make it back to KDL, and people start to
duplicate efforts over and over again.

Possible solutions to these issues have been proposed on the list [4], but
I believe the more general subject of how to improve the KDL developer
experience deserves some attention, so I'd like to ask fellow KDL
developers and users for their opinion on what they would like to see in a
future release of the library. I just created a wiki page [5] and seeded it
with a couple of ideas. Feel free to contribute your own. If there is
enough community interest, maybe we could organize a KDL developers meeting
in the future.

[1]
http://www.orocos.org/forum/rtt/rtt-dev/bug-837-new-tree-ik-position-sol...
[2] http://www.orocos.org/forum/rtt/rtt-dev/new-solvers-welcome
[3]
http://www.orocos.org/forum/orocos/orocos-users/about-wdlspriorvelsolver...
[4]
http://www.orocos.org/forum/rtt/rtt-dev/new-solvers-welcome#comment-32933
[5] http://www.orocos.org/orocos/kdl-wiki/kdl-wishlist

Best,

KDL wishlist

Hi Adolfo,

On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 3:14 PM, Adolfo Rodríguez Tsouroukdissian <
adolfo [dot] rodriguez [..] ...> wrote:

> All,
>
> For some time now the user base of KDL has been expanding significantly,
> and the use cases are becoming increasingly more complex. Practical
> experience is showing that parts of the KDL API are difficult to extend in
> a modular fashion. A particular example that has been quite active recently
> is that of Inverse Kinematics solvers [1, 2, 3], where extensions
> frequently end up resorting to code duplication and little reuse. Apart
> from the obvious problem of maintaining fragmented extensions that do make
> it upstream, many just don't make it back to KDL, and people start to
> duplicate efforts over and over again.
>
> Possible solutions to these issues have been proposed on the list [4], but
> I believe the more general subject of how to improve the KDL developer
> experience deserves some attention, so I'd like to ask fellow KDL
> developers and users for their opinion on what they would like to see in a
> future release of the library. I just created a wiki page [5] and seeded it
> with a couple of ideas. Feel free to contribute your own. If there is
> enough community interest, maybe we could organize a KDL developers meeting
> in the future.
>
> [1]
> http://www.orocos.org/forum/rtt/rtt-dev/bug-837-new-tree-ik-position-sol...
> [2] http://www.orocos.org/forum/rtt/rtt-dev/new-solvers-welcome
> [3]
> http://www.orocos.org/forum/orocos/orocos-users/about-wdlspriorvelsolver...
> [4]
> http://www.orocos.org/forum/rtt/rtt-dev/new-solvers-welcome#comment-32933
> [5] http://www.orocos.org/orocos/kdl-wiki/kdl-wishlist
>
>
With the recent interest in KDL on the list, maybe this effort should be
finally picked up by those involved.

Especially the 'wishlist' seems a good starting point to form an initial
consensus of the current KDL users.

Peter

KDL wishlist

Hi Adolfo,

On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 3:14 PM, Adolfo Rodríguez Tsouroukdissian <
adolfo [dot] rodriguez [..] ...> wrote:

> All,
>
> For some time now the user base of KDL has been expanding significantly,
> and the use cases are becoming increasingly more complex. Practical
> experience is showing that parts of the KDL API are difficult to extend in
> a modular fashion. A particular example that has been quite active recently
> is that of Inverse Kinematics solvers [1, 2, 3], where extensions
> frequently end up resorting to code duplication and little reuse. Apart
> from the obvious problem of maintaining fragmented extensions that do make
> it upstream, many just don't make it back to KDL, and people start to
> duplicate efforts over and over again.
>
> Possible solutions to these issues have been proposed on the list [4], but
> I believe the more general subject of how to improve the KDL developer
> experience deserves some attention, so I'd like to ask fellow KDL
> developers and users for their opinion on what they would like to see in a
> future release of the library. I just created a wiki page [5] and seeded it
> with a couple of ideas. Feel free to contribute your own. If there is
> enough community interest, maybe we could organize a KDL developers meeting
> in the future.
>
> [1]
> http://www.orocos.org/forum/rtt/rtt-dev/bug-837-new-tree-ik-position-sol...
> [2] http://www.orocos.org/forum/rtt/rtt-dev/new-solvers-welcome
> [3]
> http://www.orocos.org/forum/orocos/orocos-users/about-wdlspriorvelsolver...
> [4]
> http://www.orocos.org/forum/rtt/rtt-dev/new-solvers-welcome#comment-32933
> [5] http://www.orocos.org/orocos/kdl-wiki/kdl-wishlist
>
>
With the recent interest in KDL on the list, maybe this effort should be
finally picked up by those involved.

Especially the 'wishlist' seems a good starting point to form an initial
consensus of the current KDL users.

Peter

KDL wishlist

On Sun, Jun 24, 2012 at 10:55 PM, Peter Soetens <peter [..] ...>wrote:

> Hi Adolfo,
>
> On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 3:14 PM, Adolfo Rodríguez Tsouroukdissian <
> adolfo [dot] rodriguez [..] ...> wrote:
>
>> All,
>>
>> For some time now the user base of KDL has been expanding significantly,
>> and the use cases are becoming increasingly more complex. Practical
>> experience is showing that parts of the KDL API are difficult to extend in
>> a modular fashion. A particular example that has been quite active recently
>> is that of Inverse Kinematics solvers [1, 2, 3], where extensions
>> frequently end up resorting to code duplication and little reuse. Apart
>> from the obvious problem of maintaining fragmented extensions that do make
>> it upstream, many just don't make it back to KDL, and people start to
>> duplicate efforts over and over again.
>>
>> Possible solutions to these issues have been proposed on the list [4],
>> but I believe the more general subject of how to improve the KDL developer
>> experience deserves some attention, so I'd like to ask fellow KDL
>> developers and users for their opinion on what they would like to see in a
>> future release of the library. I just created a wiki page [5] and seeded it
>> with a couple of ideas. Feel free to contribute your own. If there is
>> enough community interest, maybe we could organize a KDL developers meeting
>> in the future.
>>
>> [1]
>> http://www.orocos.org/forum/rtt/rtt-dev/bug-837-new-tree-ik-position-sol...
>> [2] http://www.orocos.org/forum/rtt/rtt-dev/new-solvers-welcome
>> [3]
>> http://www.orocos.org/forum/orocos/orocos-users/about-wdlspriorvelsolver...
>> [4]
>> http://www.orocos.org/forum/rtt/rtt-dev/new-solvers-welcome#comment-32933
>> [5] http://www.orocos.org/orocos/kdl-wiki/kdl-wishlist
>>
>>
> With the recent interest in KDL on the list, maybe this effort should be
> finally picked up by those involved.
>

> Especially the 'wishlist' seems a good starting point to form an initial
> consensus of the current KDL users.
>

It does!. I'd like to pick up this discussion again in the near future. In
the time since the wishlist wiki page was created I've been contacting
other non-KDL developers/groups with interest and track record on the
topics that span the scope of a Kinematics and Dynamics Library to have a
better feeling of "what's out there", ie. how projects intersect or
complement each other, strong/weak points of each. I'll report back with
thoughts once I'm done with this and ordered my ideas.

Adolfo.

>
> Peter
>
>

KDL wishlist

On Sun, Jun 24, 2012 at 10:55 PM, Peter Soetens <peter [..] ...>wrote:

> Hi Adolfo,
>
> On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 3:14 PM, Adolfo Rodríguez Tsouroukdissian <
> adolfo [dot] rodriguez [..] ...> wrote:
>
>> All,
>>
>> For some time now the user base of KDL has been expanding significantly,
>> and the use cases are becoming increasingly more complex. Practical
>> experience is showing that parts of the KDL API are difficult to extend in
>> a modular fashion. A particular example that has been quite active recently
>> is that of Inverse Kinematics solvers [1, 2, 3], where extensions
>> frequently end up resorting to code duplication and little reuse. Apart
>> from the obvious problem of maintaining fragmented extensions that do make
>> it upstream, many just don't make it back to KDL, and people start to
>> duplicate efforts over and over again.
>>
>> Possible solutions to these issues have been proposed on the list [4],
>> but I believe the more general subject of how to improve the KDL developer
>> experience deserves some attention, so I'd like to ask fellow KDL
>> developers and users for their opinion on what they would like to see in a
>> future release of the library. I just created a wiki page [5] and seeded it
>> with a couple of ideas. Feel free to contribute your own. If there is
>> enough community interest, maybe we could organize a KDL developers meeting
>> in the future.
>>
>> [1]
>> http://www.orocos.org/forum/rtt/rtt-dev/bug-837-new-tree-ik-position-sol...
>> [2] http://www.orocos.org/forum/rtt/rtt-dev/new-solvers-welcome
>> [3]
>> http://www.orocos.org/forum/orocos/orocos-users/about-wdlspriorvelsolver...
>> [4]
>> http://www.orocos.org/forum/rtt/rtt-dev/new-solvers-welcome#comment-32933
>> [5] http://www.orocos.org/orocos/kdl-wiki/kdl-wishlist
>>
>>
> With the recent interest in KDL on the list, maybe this effort should be
> finally picked up by those involved.
>

> Especially the 'wishlist' seems a good starting point to form an initial
> consensus of the current KDL users.
>

It does!. I'd like to pick up this discussion again in the near future. In
the time since the wishlist wiki page was created I've been contacting
other non-KDL developers/groups with interest and track record on the
topics that span the scope of a Kinematics and Dynamics Library to have a
better feeling of "what's out there", ie. how projects intersect or
complement each other, strong/weak points of each. I'll report back with
thoughts once I'm done with this and ordered my ideas.

Adolfo.

>
> Peter
>
>

KDL wishlist

On Thu, 28 Jun 2012, Adolfo Rodríguez Tsouroukdissian wrote:

>
>
> On Sun, Jun 24, 2012 at 10:55 PM, Peter Soetens <peter [..] ...> wrote:
> Hi Adolfo,
>
> On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 3:14 PM, Adolfo Rodríguez Tsouroukdissian
> <adolfo [dot] rodriguez [..] ...> wrote:
> All,
>
> For some time now the user base of KDL has been expanding significantly,
> and the use cases are becoming increasingly more complex. Practical
> experience is showing that parts of the KDL API are difficult to extend
> in a modular fashion. A particular example that has been quite active
> recently is that of Inverse Kinematics solvers [1, 2, 3], where
> extensions frequently end up resorting to code duplication and little
> reuse. Apart from the obvious problem of maintaining fragmented
> extensions that do make it upstream, many just don't make it back to
> KDL, and people start to duplicate efforts over and over again.
>
> Possible solutions to these issues have been proposed on the list [4],
> but I believe the more general subject of how to improve the KDL
> developer experience deserves some attention, so I'd like to ask fellow
> KDL developers and users for their opinion on what they would like to
> see in a future release of the library. I just created a wiki page [5]
> and seeded it with a couple of ideas. Feel free to contribute your own.
> If there is enough community interest, maybe we could organize a KDL
> developers meeting in the future.
>
> [1]http://www.orocos.org/forum/rtt/rtt-dev/bug-837-new-tree-ik-position-solver-onlinereal-time-cal
> culations
> [2] http://www.orocos.org/forum/rtt/rtt-dev/new-solvers-welcome
> [3]
> http://www.orocos.org/forum/orocos/orocos-users/about-wdlspriorvelsolver...
> [4]
> http://www.orocos.org/forum/rtt/rtt-dev/new-solvers-welcome#comment-32933
> [5] http://www.orocos.org/orocos/kdl-wiki/kdl-wishlist
>
>
> With the recent interest in KDL on the list, maybe this effort should be finally picked up
> by those involved.
>
>
> Especially the 'wishlist' seems a good starting point to form an initial consensus of the
> current KDL users.
>
>
> It does!. I'd like to pick up this discussion again in the near future. In the time since the
> wishlist wiki page was created I've been contacting other non-KDL developers/groups with
> interest and track record on the topics that span the scope of a Kinematics and Dynamics Library
> to have a better feeling of "what's out there", ie. how projects intersect or complement each
> other, strong/weak points of each. I'll report back with thoughts once I'm done with this and
> ordered my ideas.

I am looking forward to this report! :-)

Herman

Preferably only plain text messages on the mailing lists...

Dear Orocos mailing list users,

I kindly invite everyone to use plain text emails only, and not
combinations of HTML and text: the latter makes it more and more impossible
for plain text readers to follow thread indentations...

Best regards,

Herman Bruyninckx

KDL wishlist

On Thu, 28 Jun 2012, Adolfo Rodríguez Tsouroukdissian wrote:

>
>
> On Sun, Jun 24, 2012 at 10:55 PM, Peter Soetens <peter [..] ...> wrote:
> Hi Adolfo,
>
> On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 3:14 PM, Adolfo Rodríguez Tsouroukdissian
> <adolfo [dot] rodriguez [..] ...> wrote:
> All,
>
> For some time now the user base of KDL has been expanding significantly,
> and the use cases are becoming increasingly more complex. Practical
> experience is showing that parts of the KDL API are difficult to extend
> in a modular fashion. A particular example that has been quite active
> recently is that of Inverse Kinematics solvers [1, 2, 3], where
> extensions frequently end up resorting to code duplication and little
> reuse. Apart from the obvious problem of maintaining fragmented
> extensions that do make it upstream, many just don't make it back to
> KDL, and people start to duplicate efforts over and over again.
>
> Possible solutions to these issues have been proposed on the list [4],
> but I believe the more general subject of how to improve the KDL
> developer experience deserves some attention, so I'd like to ask fellow
> KDL developers and users for their opinion on what they would like to
> see in a future release of the library. I just created a wiki page [5]
> and seeded it with a couple of ideas. Feel free to contribute your own.
> If there is enough community interest, maybe we could organize a KDL
> developers meeting in the future.
>
> [1]http://www.orocos.org/forum/rtt/rtt-dev/bug-837-new-tree-ik-position-solver-onlinereal-time-cal
> culations
> [2] http://www.orocos.org/forum/rtt/rtt-dev/new-solvers-welcome
> [3]
> http://www.orocos.org/forum/orocos/orocos-users/about-wdlspriorvelsolver...
> [4]
> http://www.orocos.org/forum/rtt/rtt-dev/new-solvers-welcome#comment-32933
> [5] http://www.orocos.org/orocos/kdl-wiki/kdl-wishlist
>
>
> With the recent interest in KDL on the list, maybe this effort should be finally picked up
> by those involved.
>
>
> Especially the 'wishlist' seems a good starting point to form an initial consensus of the
> current KDL users.
>
>
> It does!. I'd like to pick up this discussion again in the near future. In the time since the
> wishlist wiki page was created I've been contacting other non-KDL developers/groups with
> interest and track record on the topics that span the scope of a Kinematics and Dynamics Library
> to have a better feeling of "what's out there", ie. how projects intersect or complement each
> other, strong/weak points of each. I'll report back with thoughts once I'm done with this and
> ordered my ideas.

I am looking forward to this report! :-)

Herman

Preferably only plain text messages on the mailing lists...

Dear Orocos mailing list users,

I kindly invite everyone to use plain text emails only, and not
combinations of HTML and text: the latter makes it more and more impossible
for plain text readers to follow thread indentations...

Best regards,

Herman Bruyninckx

Preferably only plain text messages on the mailing lists...

On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 08:23:53AM +0200, Herman Bruyninckx wrote:
> Dear Orocos mailing list users,
>
> I kindly invite everyone to use plain text emails only, and not
> combinations of HTML and text: the latter makes it more and more impossible
> for plain text readers to follow thread indentations...

+1
Markus

Preferably only plain text messages on the mailing lists...

On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 08:23:53AM +0200, Herman Bruyninckx wrote:
> Dear Orocos mailing list users,
>
> I kindly invite everyone to use plain text emails only, and not
> combinations of HTML and text: the latter makes it more and more impossible
> for plain text readers to follow thread indentations...

+1
Markus