200 lines
8.5 KiB
Plaintext
200 lines
8.5 KiB
Plaintext
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========
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Road Map
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========
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Herein, we lay out our plans for evolving Genode. Progress in addition to this
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planning will very much depend on the degree of community support the project
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will receive. The
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[https://genode.org/about/challenges - Challenges] page collects some of our ideas to
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advance Genode in various further directions.
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The road map is not fixed. If there is commercial interest of pushing the
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Genode technology to a certain direction, we are willing to revisit our plans.
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Review of 2019
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##############
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For the road map 2019, we picked "bridging worlds" as our guiding theme:
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(1) Lowering the friction when combining existing software with Genode,
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(2) Fostering interoperability with widely used protocols and APIs, and
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(3) Making Genode easier to approach and generally more practical.
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With respect to (1), we identified Genode's custom tooling (build
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system, run scripts, ports mechanism, depot tools) as a point of
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friction. They are arguably powerful and flexible but require a lot of
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up-front learning. This is certainly a burden unacceptable for a casual
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developer without a black belt in Make and Expect/Tcl. The new
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[https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/19.11#New_tooling_for_bridging_existing_build_systems_with_Genode - Goa]
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tool rearranges the existing tools in a way that puts the concerns of casual
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developers into focus, allowing for the use of commodity build systems,
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eliminating Tcl syntax from the equation, running sub-second test cycles, and
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streamlining the packaging of software.
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On account of (2), we
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[https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/19.05#Broadened_CPU_architecture_support_and_updated_tool_chain - switched to C++17]
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by default, fostered the use of
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[https://genodians.org/ssumpf/2019-02-27-java-19-02 - Java],
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updated Qt5, and put
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[https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/19.11#C_runtime_with_improved_POSIX_compatibility - POSIX]
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compatibility into the spotlight. We were eventually able to dissolve the need
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for our custom Unix runtime (Noux) because all features of Noux are covered by
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our regular libc now.
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Our biggest step towards (3) is the [https://genodians.org] website we
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started in winter 2019, which gives individual members of our community
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an easy way to present thoughts, projects, and experiences.
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Complementing Genode's formal documentation, it also conserves practical
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tips and tricks that were previously not covered in written form.
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When speaking of "bridging worlds", we should not forget to mention the
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tremendous effort to bring Sculpt-OS-like workloads to the 64-bit ARM world.
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Thanks to the added support for
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[https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/19.08#64-bit_ARM_and_NXP_i.MX8 - multi-core AARCH64],
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hardware-based
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[https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/19.11#Virtualization_of_64-bit_ARM_platforms - virtualization],
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and network/USB/graphics drivers for the i.MX8 SoC, the flexibility of Sculpt
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OS will eventually become available on PC hardware and ARM-based devices
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alike.
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Over the course of 2019, we admittedly skipped a few topics originally
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mentioned on our road map. In particular, the user-visible side of
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Sculpt OS received less attention than originally envisioned. We also
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deferred several ideas we had in mind about reworking our GUI stack.
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Instead, we expanded our work in the areas of storage (block-level APIs,
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test infrastructure,
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[https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/19.11#Preliminary_block-device_encrypter - block encryption])
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and
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[https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/19.08#Flexible_keyboard_layouts - input processing].
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This shift of focus is mostly attributed to the priorities of Genode Labs'
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customers who fund our work.
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2020 - Dwarfing the barrier of entry
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####################################
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Genode as a technology is there. For more than one decade, we walked unfathomed
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territory, fought with countless deep rabbit holes, took risky decisions,
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tracked back, explored design spaces, developed taste and distaste, pruned
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technical debt, and eventually found formulas of success. Today, there are no
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(fundamental) unsolved questions. All the puzzle pieces are in place. There
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could be no better proof than our daily use of Sculpt OS. The time is right
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to make Genode palatable for a wider circle. We identified four actionable
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topics to achieve that.
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:User friendliness of Sculpt OS:
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Until now, Sculpt OS is not exactly friendly towards users who are
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unfamiliar with the Unix command-line tools. Since Sculpt is not Unix
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based, this is a bit paradoxical. 2020 will give Sculpt OS a friendlier
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and discoverable user experience. In this context, we will inevitably
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put our attention to Genode's GUI stack.
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:Perception of high quality:
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Compared to commodity operating systems who stood the test of time,
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Genode is a young and largely unproven technology. It understandably calls
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for skepticism. All the more we must leave no doubts about our high
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quality standards. There must be no room for uncertainty. Hence, during
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2020, we will intensify the consolidation and optimization of the framework
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and its API, and talk about it.
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:Enjoyable tooling:
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Genode's success at large will depend on developers. As of today, software
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development for Genode requires a huge up-front learning curve. This is
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fine for people who are already convinced of Genode. But it unacceptable
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for casual developers who want to get their toes wet. We should aim for
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tooling that allows new developers to keep up their flow and beloved
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tools. The recently introduced [https://genodians.org/nfeske/2019-11-25-goa - Goa]
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tooling is our first take in this respect. It is certainly too early to call
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Goa a success. In order to find out if we are on the right track, we want to
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expose Goa to as many problems as possible, primarily by the means of
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porting software. Also, things like IDE usage or adapters for a variety of
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build systems will certainly move into focus in 2020.
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:Convincing use cases:
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Use cases can give exemplary proof of the fitness of Genode. We already
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took a few baby steps to extend the range of documented use cases beyond
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Sculpt OS last year. The boot2java scenenario comes in mind. 2020 will
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hopefully see several more illustrations of Genode's versatility.
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Apart from this overall theme, we plan to continue our commitment to the
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NXP i.MX SoC family, revisit Genode's low-latency audio support, and
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extend the cultivation of Ada/SPARK within (and on top of) Genode.
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Milestones for 2020
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###################
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In the following, we present a rough schedule of the planned work. As usual,
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it is not set in stone. If you are interested in a particular line of work,
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please get in touch.
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February - Release 20.02
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========================
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* Consolidation: removal of the Noux runtime
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* Library version of the init component
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* Updated audio drivers
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* Sculpt
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* 64-bit ARM (i.MX8)
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* Revised administrative user interface
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* System image without Unix tools
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May - Release 20.05
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===================
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* Updated "Genode Foundations" book
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* Consolidation
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* Block-level components (update to Genode's modern block APIs)
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* ARM device drivers (introducing the notion of a platform driver)
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* Improved STL support (e.g., threading and mutexes)
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* Continuous POSIX-compliance testing
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* Systematic network-stack stress and performance tests
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* Desktop: panel and virtual desktops
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* Use case: Genode-based network router
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* Goa: broadened support for 3rd-party build systems
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* Native tool chain, including Git
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* Sculpt
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* Interactive device management
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* Keyboard-controlled administration
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* Support for BSPs maintained outside of Genode's mainline repository
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August - Release 20.08
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======================
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* Revisited GUI-related framework interfaces
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* Extended tooling for performance monitoring
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* Goa: Qt development workflow
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* Desktop
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* Native mail client
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* Native web browser
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* Sculpt
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* Configurable CPU resources
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* On-screen documentation
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* Block encryption via our
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[https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/19.11#Preliminary_block-device_encrypter - consistent block encrypter]
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implemented in Ada/SPARK
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* USB audio
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* Initial version of a kernel implemented in Ada/SPARK
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November - Release 20.11
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========================
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* Consolidation of capability-space management across kernels
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* CPU-load balancing
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* Hardware-accelerated graphics on i.MX8 (experimental)
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* Reworked audio stack (interfaces, mixing)
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* Sculpt: component lifetime management, shutdown protocol
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* VFS plugins for lwext4 and FUSE-based file systems
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