[Tinyos Core WG] 2.0.2 release plans

[Philip Levis]

Vlado Handziski wrote:
> Do we have any policy again mixing of platform-dependent and 
> platform-independent applications in the top /apps dir? This would be 
> the only platform specific app in the top dir apart from the TOSSIM 
> apps. the /apps/tests is currently a mixed bag.
>
> On another note. One of the things I hated most in TinyOS 1.x were the 
> platform #ifdefs. We managed to keep the T2 code pretty clear  until 
> now, but with this app, with Deluge, the CC2420 tests, etc. they are 
> creeping back in. I know it is very convenient, but it makes life much 
> harder for the non-core platforms, forcing the maintainers to shadow 
> and patch complete components, etc. In almost all cases, it is much 
> better to factor our the platform dependent code in separate 
> components, with clear interfaces between them and the 
> platform-independent logic.
I think everyone would agree that the fewer #define statements the 
better. At some point, #define statements are needed for things like 
compile-time constant specification, but  I don't think that's
the big deal. Rather, #define specified module and configuration code. 
Generally, #define statements pop up where the abstractions are not 
quite right or where we haven't quite figured out how to structure 
things well; they tend to be at the edge of system design. So let's 
revisit them for 2.1 and see if we can figure out how to reduce them.

Phil