Dear RTT user,

This summer, the Real-Time Toolkit will undergo its upgrade to reach version
2.0. This means some functions or classes will change. It is our intention to
make the transition for existing RTT-1.0 users as painless as possible. In
order to do so, the following objectives are set forth:

* To aim for simplification: pure out semantics of the functions and objects
* To not add complexity and to get a uniform 'look and feel'.
* To rename functions or classes if their semantics change
* To provide scripts that do necessary renames of changed functions, classes,
includes etc. in user code
* To provide detailed transition notes to guide you in all this

The discussions about the topics of change were already started on the orocos-
dev mailing list. See this page: http://www.orocos.org/wiki/rtt/rtt-2.0 for
the summary of that discussion. Though nothing is carved in stone yet.

The proposed major work packages are:
* Data Ports simplification: Sylvain Joyeux proposed a new data port model
which improves component reusability, interoperability with other frameworks
and is more logical.
* Method/Event/Command simplification: Peter Soetens proposed to offer a simpler
'Message' primitive instead of Command and unify Method and Message with the
Event interface and on the CORBA interface. This simplifies the Orocos
client/server aka request/reply model for component communication.
* Application examples: Using the improved interface, write 3 or 4 typical
getting started applications, which new users can use to start from.
* RTT source and namespace reordering: Headers and classes not meant for users
will be moved in sub-directories and nested namespaces.
* UML 2.0 state machine script integration using Lua: Markus Klotzbucher
proposes a way to define UML 2.0 state machines in Orocos, which are described
in the Lua language
(see the link above for more details)

We'd like to get answers from users on these 5 questions:
1. Which of these packages are important or not important to you ?
2. Which of these changes would/could impact you a lot ?
3. Which is missing, what had you hoped that RTT 2.0 would solve/improve ?
4. Would you consider switching to RTT 2.0 or stay at RTT 1.x ?
5. Which tooling do you miss most when working with the RTT (give an example
of existing tools in other frameworks if possible)

Now is your chance to answer and influence this change for the better.

To state things clear: RTT 2.0 is *not* a major overhaul. A major part of the
API and the concepts will remain the same.

Please reply to orocos-dev, orocos-users or on the website forum where this
post is also available. No discussion will take place on the 'orocos' announce
list. I'll be on holidays for a week, so feel free to fire along, I won't argue
with you :-)

Peter