[Ns-developers] helper APIs, and planning for ns-3.1 release

[Tom Henderson]

All,

We had scheduled a development release for March 31, but it took until 
yesterday to complete the initial helper API and to align the example 
scripts.  I recommend that we plan to release what is in ns-3-dev (plus 
whatever cleanups and documentation are added in the coming week) as 
ns-3.0.12 release next Monday April 7.

We've made some significant API changes at both the low level
(attributes) and mid-level (helper APIs).  In particular, the examples 
and tutorial scripts now use the helper APIs extensively, instead of the 
low-level APIs.  I would like to initiate discussion of this code on the 
list.

We'd like to get to an ns-3.1 release now as quickly as possible.  This 
means that we would focus on cleaning up, testing, and documenting our 
existing codebase, while avoiding too many efforts towards new models.

Therefore, I'd like to suggest that we plan on the month of April for 
the following activities:
- review of recently merged helper APIs and example scripts
- python bindings (Gustavo is providing these)

and around one month from now, post an ns-3.1-beta release
with a more polished helper API and with bindings, if they are completed.  Then, we would plan on allocating another 30-45 days (up until June 15) to finalize the ns-3.1 release.

If this schedule is roughly agreeable, I would like to start detailing and discussing what is proposed to be in the 3.1 release and what is the roadmap beyond the 3.1 release.

Thanks,
Tom