[Rock-dev] Reorg of modelling-related packages

[Thomas Roehr]

On 05.06.2017 21:42, Sylvain Joyeux wrote:
> In the course of the last two years, I've grown extremely frustrated
> with the way Ruby code is distributed within rock-core packages.
> 
> As an example, let's look at the transformer:
> 
>  drivers/transformer is the *implementation* of a transformer-like
> functionality in C++
>  drivers/orogen/transformer/rock/transformer.rb is the orogen plugin
> that gives access to drivers/transformer in oroGen
>  drivers/transformer/ruby implements a *model* of a transformer tree
> in Ruby, which has no relationship whatsoever with the C++ library
> (apart from the name)
>  drivers/transformer/ruby/syskit is both a generic implementation of
> frame annotations in a component network *and* the runtime setup of
> oroGen components that use the transformer orogen plugin
> 
> What I'd like to do first and foremost is split the ruby code out of
> the C++ library. This would make the development cycle in Ruby that
> much more streamlined (documentation, gemification & tests)

Would you also put language bindings into a separate library?

> 
> Moreover, I'd like to split the ruby "framework-free" library from the
> Syskit and oroGen bits. I've wanted to do the same for typelib and
> oroGen at some point, and was thinking about getting all the
> "modelling" bits under the modelkit- umbrella, the component-level
> runtime bits under the runkit- umbrella and then orogen- and syskit-,
> e.g.
> 
>   tools/modelkit-transformer: what's currently the non-syskit bits of
> drivers/transformer/ruby
>   tools/syskit-transformer: drivers/transformer/ruby/syskit/*
>   tools/orogen-transformer: the transformer/orogen plugin

Why using modelkit-* and not e.g. transformer_ruby as already used for
other packages?

I would prefer something like syskit-plugin- and orogen-plugin- for clarity

Any example for what runkit is supposed to contain?


> 
> This would give me a frame into which the Gazebo integration (which
> follows the same kind of mess than the transformer) could be finally
> organized:
> 
>   tools/modelkit-sdf: modelling related to SDF (orogen modelling of a
> Gazebo instance, SDF loader for the transformer)
>   tools/runkit-sdf: loading a SDF file into a vizkit3d instance,
> optionally linking to a running Gazebo instance.
>   tools/syskit-sdf: using SDF to auto-configure a system in Syskit,
> integration of Gazebo in Syskit.

> 
> While the namespaces would change, getting backward-compatible aliases
> won't be a big deal since the code/APIs won't change (at least, not
> right away)
> 
> I'm open for better ideas. It does split the code in smaller units -
> against which there was a strong feeling at the origin of Rock - but
> I've seen that explaining where is everything is REALLY hard right
> now, simply because loosely-related things ended up being bundled
> together.
I would add: because related things are sometimes not clearly or easily
identifiable. So your proposal would solve that in parts e.g. by
exposing the plugins a bit more.


-- 
Thomas Röhr (M.Sc.)
Space Robotics

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