[ros-users] REP 3: Target Platforms updates for Fuerte and Groovy

[Ken Conley]

The "Thirdparty library normalization and Target Platforms" SIG [1]
has met and come up with the proposed update for REP 3, Target
Platforms.  REP 3 defines which Ubuntu distribution releases we will
target, as well as sets the low-water mark for major system library
compatibility (e.g. Python, Boost).   The high-level summary of our
discussion is that Groovy, rather than Fuerte, will be the major
transitional release, and that we are proposing to drop both Maverick
and Natty support for Fuerte.  Lucid will still be supported as it is
the latest LTS.

The proposed target platform update for Fuerte is below.  There is
also an Ubuntu distribution release spec for Groovy -- system library
low watermarks are still TBD for that release.

For Fuerte, we have chosen to drop support for both Maverick and
Natty.  Maverick is EOL 1 month after the Fuerte release, so it
doesn't make sense to spend integration resources on it.  Natty was a
more difficult choice; we based on our decision on the observation
that users tracking the non-LTS releases of Ubuntu have generally
migrated migrated to the next non-LTS release.  Less target platforms
means that we can do a better job with the ones that we are targeting
as both people and servers will not be spread as thin.

REP 3 Updates:

Fuerte Turtle (Mar 2012)

 * Ubuntu Lucid
 * Ubuntu Oneiric
 * Ubuntu P
 * C++03
 * Boost 1.40
 * Lisp SBCL 1.0.x
 * Python 2.6

Groovy Galapagos (Aug 2012)

 * Ubuntu Oneiric
 * Ubuntu P
 * System libraries TBD

[1] http://www.ros.org/wiki/fuerte/Planning/Thirdparty