Hi,

sorry again for double posting, in case you also follow the thread on ROS
Discourse
<https://discourse.ros.org/t/updates-on-orocos-ros-1-and-2-integration/15146/6>.
I assume that there are a number of current and former users who are still
subscribed here but not following ROS Discourse. Hopefully the
questionnaire linked below will give us a better picture. In case you are
not interested in Orocos anymore, please unsubscribe at
https://ls.kuleuven.be/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=OROCOSUSERS&A=1.

A short update:

The Orocos ROS 2 integration
<https://github.com/orocos/rtt_ros2_integration> is functional now
including typekit generation, ROS topic transport and ROS parameter
support, but we are working on documentation and examples. Some service
names and APIs might still be changed, so it’s not stable yet. Support for
ROS 2 services and actions is still pending.

The new entry page for Orocos documentation, docs.orocos.org is online,
hosted by ReadTheDocs <https://readthedocs.org /> from
https://github.com/orocos/orocos-docs. We are now copying over existing
documentation and converting it to reStructuredText, or simply add links to
existing documentation and examples as a starting point. You are welcome to
contribute or give feedback via GitHub issues or pull requests in that
repository. Stay tuned!

Last but not least, we kindly ask you to participate in the following
questionnaire on Orocos usage today, such that we can learn about the
community and its needs:

*Orocos questionnaire 2020* <https://forms.gle/BmpXhamqc8XJq2aP7>

It has been quite silent on mailing lists and GitHub over the last years,
but we know from issues and questions being posted and personal emails we
occasionally get that there are at least some groups who are using or have
been using Orocos (other than KDL), with or without ROS, despite of the
outdated information on the web page and hard-to-find documentation. So the
questionnaire will hopefully help to get a full picture, to adjust the
priorities and to guide decisions like on what platform to use for future
Orocos-related discussions and announcements.

Thanks and kind regards,
Johannes

On Thu, 9 Jul 2020 at 19:41, Johannes Meyer <johannes [..] ...>
wrote:

> Dear community members,
>
> As promised a follow up email with our proposal on future Orocos
> documentation and community portal. We’re happy to hear your suggestions:
>
> *New landing page* (www.orocos.org)
>
> -
>
> Goals: main landing page, low maintenance
> -
>
> Content:
> -
>
> General information, announcements of new releases etc.
> -
>
> No wiki, forum etc.
> -
>
> Link to documentation and source repositories
> -
>
> Link to mailing list
> -
>
> Link to legacy wiki
> -
>
> Comparable example: ros.org <https://www.ros.org>
>
> *Documentation* (docs.orocos.org)
>
> -
>
> Goals: entry page for Orocos documentation, support for
> version-specific documentation as needed, easy & automated maintenance
> -
>
> Content: general concepts, everything you need to install and use
> Orocos, API documentation, detailed examples
> -
>
> Location/tool: using Sphinx <https://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master />,
> likely hosted on readthedocs.io <https://docs.readthedocs.io />
> -
>
> At first a central page, in a later phase we might move
> documentation to the respective source repository to support versioning
> where appropriate.
> -
>
> ReStructuredText <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReStructuredText>
> source files at https://github.com/orocos/orocos-docs and directly
> in source code repositories. Contributions can be made through GitHub pull
> requests.
> - This will also replace the DocBook
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DocBook> documentation currently at
> rtt/doc <https://github.com/orocos-toolchain/rtt/tree/master/doc> and
> ocl/doc <https://github.com/orocos-toolchain/ocl/tree/master/doc>,
> e.g. the component builder manual
> <https://orocos.github.io/rtt/toolchain-2.9/xml/orocos-components-manual.html>
> .
> -
>
> Comparable examples:
> -
>
> https://rtt-lwr.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
> -
>
> https://industrial-training.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
>
> *Community interaction*
>
> -
>
> Goals: active and engaged community, easy maintenance and management
> -
>
> Content: get in contact, ask questions and give answers, ideation
> -
>
> Location/tool: Options we are considering and for which we would like
> your feedback:
> -
>
> Continue to use the existing mailing lists hosted on ls.kuleuven.be
> <https://admin.kuleuven.be/icts/english/services/listserv>, with
> forwardings from orocos-users [..] ... and orocos-dev [..] ...?
> The backend was replaced a few years ago and since then it was not possible
> to subscribe anymore. That has been fixed now. The current solution still
> has some drawbacks:
> -
>
> Mailing lists are kind of “old fashioned”. We also did not find
> a way yet to set up a subscription form on the new landing page.
> -
>
> It is easily spammed and requires moderation.
> -
>
> The archives as-is are not very user friendly, hence are rarely
> searched or visited.
> -
>
> It is unlikely that we can revive the forum
> <https://www.orocos.org/forum> on the new landing page, which
> was connected to the mailing lists as a kind of archive.
>
> Alternative suggestions are welcome.
>
> -
>
> We ask OSRF to make a category for Orocos on ROS Discourse
> <https://discourse.ros.org>? This could serve as an alternative to
> the mailing list.
> -
>
> Any objection against this? However, we are not sure how big the
> overlap of ROS and Orocos communities currently is.
> -
>
> For proposing OSRF <https://www.openrobotics.org /> to create a
> new category
> <https://discourse.ros.org/t/how-to-propose-a-new-local-user-group/8081/2>,
> we would need some people who express interest in participating and leading
> discussions in the category.
> -
>
> Use the issue tracker of a dedicated GitHub repository (e.g.
> https://github.com/orocos/community) for general questions and
> announcements, next to the issue boards for individual subprojects.
> Interested people can start watching the repository to receive email
> notifications on any new topic and watch/unwatch per issue.
>
>
> *In summary:*
>
> -
>
> orocos.org will get leaner, with the wiki discontinued and its
> information gradually moved to docs.orocos.org.
> -
>
> docs.orocos.org will become the central entry page for Orocos
> documentation
> -
>
> The temporary replacements of orocos.org on orocos-toolchain.github.io
> and orocos.github.io will be removed. They were not updated anymore
> anyway.
>
>
> Best to respond on ROS Discourse in this thread
> <https://discourse.ros.org/t/updates-on-orocos-ros-1-and-2-integration/15146/4>,
> to keep the feedback together at one place.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Johannes
>