Project Plan For Target Management, version 3.5

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Release Deliverables
• Release Milestones
• Target Environments
• Compatibility with Previous Releases
• Themes and Priorities
• Appendix

Last revised at approximately 19:00 UTC January 9, 2013.

Please send comments about this plan to the tm-dev@eclipse.org developer mailing list (subscription info).

The Target Management Project provides data models, frameworks and tools for working with remote computer systems. The main deliverable is the Remote System Explorer (RSE), a feature-rich integrated perspective and toolkit for seamlessly working on remote systems. Besides that, we deliver flexible, re-usable components for Networking and Target Management that run stand-alone or integrated with RSE.

In terms of interfaces to other Eclipse projects, we provide an Eclipse Filesystem (EFS) provider to allow remote resources be mapped into an Eclipse Workspace. The DLTK and CDT projects are other Eclipse projects known to integrate with Target Management. PTP and PDT can use TM services via the underlying DLTK and CDT layers. Several Eclipse Packages include TM (The Eclipse for Web package, for instance, includes the TM Terminal).

Shortcut to Themes:

• Update Release Engineering
• Run on Eclipse 4.3

Target Management source code release, available as versions tagged "R3_5" in the project's RSE Git Repository.

The runtime and SDK features are available in a P2 repository. See our Hudson build page to download a copy of the nightly build repository. For 3.5 there will be no zip file packages produced for stand-alone download.

• Remote System Explorer (RSE):
  • RSE SDK (includes runtime, user and programmer documentation, with sources)
  • RSE client runtime binaries (split up by protocol, includes user documentation)
  • RSE dstore server runtime
  • RSE User Actions and Compile Commands
  • RSE tutorial code and examples
  • RSE unit test framework and tests
• Stand-alone components:
  • TM Terminal SDK (includes runtime, user and programmer documentation, with sources)
  • Redistribution of Apache Commons Net 2.2 (also available through the Orbit project)
• Incubating components:
  • TM Local Terminal Connector (runtime and sources)

Notes:

The WinCE subsystems are deprecated in this release.

All stand-alone components will have an integration part that makes them work inside the RSE framework. For that reason, there are no downloadable stand-alone component tests, but the RSE unit test component will also have tests for the stand-alone components.

Release milestones will be occurring at roughly 6 week intervals, and will be aligned with the Kepler Simultaneous Release. Target Management's Kepler deliveries fall on the "+1" dates in the Kepler calendar.

The target date for availability of Target Management 3.5 is:

• Wednesday June 26, 2012 - TM 3.5 Release date (with Kepler)

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

The Target Management Project 3.5 depends upon on the Eclipse Platform 4.3. For this release, the RSE sources will be written and compiled against Java SE 6, and are designed to run on that version as well.

The Target Management deliverables will be tested and validated against a small subset of the reference platforms listed in the Eclipse Platform 4.3 Project Plan (this list is updated over the course of the release cycle).

Apple Mac OS X 10.8 is considered a "secondary" Reference Platform meaning that it does receive some amount of systematic testing but doesn't enjoy quite the same priority for bug fixes as the other Platforms.

Eclipse and Target Management 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 Target Management on a non-reference platform that cannot be recreated on any reference platform will be given lower priority than problems with running Target Management on a reference platform.

Although untested, Target Management should work fine on other OSes that support the same window system. For more details, see the Eclipse Platform 4.3 Project Plan.

Datastore Agent Reference Platforms

The Datastore protocol is the default protocol shipped with RSE for accessing remote file systems, process info and shells. It requires a Datastore server (agent) running on the remote system. This Datastore agent is shipped as plain Java Source Code together with the RSE distribution. It should run fine on any Java Platform, with additional Data Miner Plug-ins that may be OS specific.

We will test and verify the Datastore agent on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, Intel x86, IBM 1.6 VM

The Remote System Explorer is designed as the basis for internationalized products. The user interface elements provided by the RSE components, including dialogs and error messages, are externalized. The English strings are provided as the default resource bundles. The default bundles will be localized to a subset of those locales offered by the Platform. This plan will be updated to indicate which locales will be provided and the timeframe for availability.

Target Management 3.5 will be backward compatible with TM 3.4.

API Contract Compatibility: Target Management 3.5 will be compatible with TM 3.4 as per the constraints documented in the TM 3.4 API Docs.

Binary (plug-in) Compatibility: Target Management 3.5 will be binary compatible with TM 3.4.

Source Compatibility: Target Management 3.5 will not be source compatible with TM 3.4 as there will be changes in internal interfaces.

Workspace Compatibility: We intend to keep Target Management 3.5 upwards workspace-compatible with TM 3.4 unless noted. This means that workspaces and projects created with TM 3.4 can be successfully opened by Target Management 3.5 and upgraded to a 3.5 workspace. This includes especially TM 3.4 connection definitions, which may propagate between workspaces via file copying or team repositories. User interface session state may be discarded when a workspace is upgraded. Downward workspace compatibility is not supported. A workspace created (or opened) by a product based on TM 3.5 may be unusable with a product based on TM 3.4.

API Contract

APIs published for the Target Management 3.5 release will be 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.

Plan items listed below were defined according to contributor requirements, but in accordance with the Target Management Use Cases Document and the Eclipse Themes and Priorities set forth by the Eclipse Requirements Council. Each plan item covers a feature or API that is to be added to the Target Management deliverables, or some aspect of the Target Management Project that is to be improved. Each plan item has its own entry in the Eclipse bugzilla database, with a title and a concise summary (usually a single paragraph) that explains the work item at a suitably high enough level so that everyone can readily understand what the work item is without having to understand the nitty-gritty detail.

Not all plan items represent the same amount of work; some may be quite large, others, quite small. Although some plan items are for work that is more pressing than others, the plan items appear in no particular order. 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. In bugzilla, this is reflected by having a concrete target milestone assigned.
• 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. In bugzilla, such items are reflected by having a target milestone "3.4" assigned.
• 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. In bugzilla, such items are reflected by having a target milestone "Future" or "---" assigned.