Tool statuses

From MCRL2

Every mCRL2 tool has a status that indicates its development phase. The following statuses are distinguished:

• Proposed: no working tool, just a tool proposal document;
• Experimental: working tool with concise manual;
• Release: stable working tool, documented and tested;
• Deprecated: unsupported tool.

These status are described below in more detail.

Contents 1 Proposed 2 Experimental 3 Release 4 Deprecated

Proposed

For a tool to receive the Proposed status, a tool proposal should be written. This document describes the tool's intended purpose, interface and functionalities. It is highly recommended to discuss a tool proposal with other mCRL2 developers for feedback.

Experimental

For the Experimental status, a tool's main functionalities should have been implemented. However, this implementation need not yet be fully complete or stable.

Also, basic documentation should have been written for the tool. This includes a help function and manual page describing the tool's main functionalities. See the Documentation guidelines for more information.

Release

For the Release status, all functionalities as described in the tool proposal have been implemented. The implementation can be considered stable, implying that it has successfully passed a series of tests covering the tool's main functionalities. The code adheres to the Coding guidelines and the interface adheres to the Tool interface guidelines.

Furthermore, the tool's documentation has been completed and reviewed by at least one person other than the documentation's author(s). It adheres to the Documentation guidelines.

Deprecated

Any Experimental or Release tool can become Deprecated by a decision on an mCRL2-developers' meeting. This means that the tool's development is discontinued. No new features are added and maintenance is performed only if the tool would otherwise fail to functioning properly. Eventually, deprecated tools are removed from the toolset completely when their functionality is provided by other tools.