[ros-users] [Release] Orocos Toolchain ROS 0.2.1 released!!!

[Ruben Smits]

The Orocos Toolchain ROS stack developers are pleased to announce a new 
release of the orocos_toolchain_ros stack 
<http://www.ros.org/wiki/orocos_toolchain_ros>.

Debian packages are already available for unstable, diamondback and cturtle 
(only for lucid and maverick) will be available soon.

Most important changes:

* We moved the development to GIT: the stack is available on 
<http://git.mech.kuleuven.be/robotics/orocos_toolchain_ros.git> (only http 
protocol is supported). Since we use git submodules do not forget to use '--
recursive' if you clone or to issue 'git submodule init;git submodule update' 
after cloning.

* Integration of RTT/Properties and ROS/Parameters: a new RTT service is 
available in the rtt_ros_param package that allows RTT users to store 
component properties on the ROS parameter server or to refresh them using 
values on the ROS parameter server. The integration also works seamlessly for 
your complex types as long as a RTT/Typekit for the type exists. Check 
<http://www.ros.org/wiki/rtt_ros_param> for more details.

* The RTT typekit and transportkit generation for messages now creates a 
single library/typekit/transportkit for each package instead of one for each 
message type.

* RTT and OCL are now native ROS packages, which allows us to use rosmake 
directly on the RTT and OCL source.

* OCL offers a orocreate-pkg tool to create a new Orocos package (which uses 
rosbuild behind the scenes if available) including template code for 
components, typekits, plugins and services.

* the OCL/deployer can now be used with roslaunch, each deployed process 
becomes a single node, containing the different deployed components.

* the OCL/deployer now uses rospack in its import functionality, to find new 
component libraries, services, plugins, typekits and transportkits. 

What's still on the roadmap:

* Nicer solution for sequence types in the rosparam integration
* Integration of the RTT/logging with the ROS/logging
* Integration of RTT/Operations and ROS/Services (This one is currently on a 
hold because the feasibility is still uncertain)


More information on the use of Orocos/RTT itself can be found on 
<http://www.orocos.org/wiki/toolchain>


-- Your friendly Orocos-ROS integration team.