DSDP Device Debugging 0.9 Project Plan

Last revised 05 Feb 2007

Please send comments about this draft plan to the dsdp-dd-dev@eclipse.org developer mailing list.

This document lays out the technical features and project plan for the 0.9 (Europa) release of the Eclipse DSDP - Device Debugging Project.

This project plan and associated requirements are the result of an open and transparent process and includes input from those who have expressed an interest in the project. That said, the success of the project and its deliverables is solely dependent upon the contributions from its community membership. If you are interested in contributing to the project in the delivery of its stated goals, you are more than welcome!

The first part of the plan deals with the important matters of release deliverables, release milestones, operating environments, compatibilities and dependencies. These are all things that need to be clear for any release, even if no features were to change.

The remainder of the plan consists of themes and tasks for each of the project milestones.

Release deliverables

The release deliverables have the same form as is found in most Eclipse projects, namely:

  • Source code release, available as versions tagged "R0_9" in the project's DD CVS Repository and DSF CVS Repository.
  • SDK (includes runtime, user and programmer documentation, with sources) (downloadable).
  • Runtime binary distribution (includes user documentation) (downloadable).
  • Examples (downloadable).
  • Unit tests (downloadable).

Release milestones

Release milestone will align and release with the Europa milestones starting with M4. The DD project is at the top of the technology stack (level 2):

  • Thursday January 4, 2007 - Milestone 4 (0.9 M4) - stable build
  • Friday February 23, 2007 - Milestone 5 (0.9 M5) - stable build
  • Friday April 6, 2007 - Milestone 6 (0.9 M6) - stable build (API freeze)
  • Friday May 18, 2007 - Milestone 7 (0.9 M7/RC0 - stable build
  • Friday June 29, 2007 - 0.9 Release on Europa train

Lock down and testing then begins with M7, and progress through a series of test-fix passes against candidates releases. When no critical bugs are found during testing, the release candidate is declared a release. DD 0.9 will be delivered as part of the Europa Release.

All release deliverables will be available for download as soon as the release has been tested and validated in the operating environments listed below.

Operating Environments

In order to remain current, each Eclipse release is designed to run on reasonably current versions of the underlying operating environments.

The Device Debugging project depends upon on the Eclipse Platform 3.3 and CDT 4.0. Additionally, DD 0.9 depends on language features in Java 5. For this release, the DD sources will be written and compiled against version 1.5.x of the Java Platform APIs (i.e., Java 2 Platform, Release 1.5.x SE).

Eclipse Platform SDK 3.3 will be tested and validated on a number of reference platforms (this list is updated over the course of the release cycle). The DD project wil be tested and validated against a subset of those listed for the platform.

Device Debugging Reference Platforms
Operating system OS version Processor architecture Window system Java 2 Platform
Microsoft Windows XP Intel x86 Win32 Sun Java 2 Standard Edition 5.0 Update 8
for Microsoft Windows
Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 4 Intel x86 GTK Sun Java 2 Standard Edition 5.0 Update 8
for Linux x86

Eclipse and the DD code will undoubtedly run fine in many operating environments beyond the reference platforms we test. However, since we do not systematically test them we cannot vouch for them. Problems encountered when running Eclipse on a non-reference platform that cannot be recreated on any reference platform will be given lower priority than problems with running Eclipse on a reference platform.

Internationalization

Device Debugging is designed as the basis for internationalized products. The user interface elements provided by DD components, including dialogs and error messages, are externalized. The English strings are provided as the default resource bundles. Additional languages can be implemented by adopters of DD.

Compatibility and Dependencies

Compatibility of Release 0.9

DD 0.9 is the first public release of DD. DD will be developed in parallel with the Eclipse Platform SDK version 3.3. Each DD Milestone Release will be based on the most recent Platform Milestone available at the time of release. Therefore, DD 0.9 will be compatible with Eclipse Platform 3.3 release and will publish binary and source compatibilities with migration guides on subsequent releases.

API Contract

DD 0.9 is the first public release of DD. APIs published for the 0.9 release will be carefully reviewed prior to release, making use of "internal" packages for unsupported and variable implementation classes. Client plug-ins that directly depend on anything other than what is specified in the published API are inherently unsupportable and receive no guarantees about future compatibility. Refer to How to Use the Eclipse API for information about how to write compliant plug-ins.

Though it is our goal to create stable APIs, being able to do so depends on the amount of API feedback we will get from the community. Given that DD 0.9 is the first release of DD, users should assume that all public APIs are povisional as described in eclipse quality. We do not guarantee 0.9 APIs will remain unchanged in the 1.0 release.

Features and Capabilities

Plan items listed bleow were defined according to contributor requirements and the DSDP and Eclipse Themes and Priorities (Preliminary Roadmap v3) set forth by the Eclipse Requirments Council.

Please use the DD Project plan items bugzilla query for an up-to-date list. See the corresponding bugzilla items for up-to-date status information on ongoing work and planned delivery milestones.

The current status of each plan item is noted:

  • Committed plan item - A committed plan item is one that we have decided to address for the release.
  • Proposed plan item - A proposed plan item is one that we are considering addressing for the release. Although we are actively investigating it, we are not yet in a position to commit to it, or to say that we won't be able to address it. After due consideration, a proposal will either be committed or deferred.
  • Deferred plan item - A reasonable proposal that will not make it in to this release for some reason is marked as deferred with a brief note as to why it was deferred. Deferred plan items may resurface as committed plan items at a later point.

Committed Items

Debugger Services Framework (DSF). The debugger services framework in an implementation of the new Eclipse debug adaptable interfaces.

Traditional Memory Render. A traditional memory rendering commonly found in embedded debugger applications will be released.

Proposed Items

GDB/mi Debugger Implementation. A standard GDB/mi protocol implementation will be provided for use with a Linux-based GDB debug engine.

Deferred Items

None at this time.