20,741
edits
How the FlightGear project works: Difference between revisions
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
How the FlightGear project works (view source)
Revision as of 21:15, 25 December 2013
, 25 December 2013→Lack of Support and Backwards Compatibility: http://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=21612&p=196513#p196513
m (→You need development guidelines: http://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=21612&p=196718#p196718) |
(→Lack of Support and Backwards Compatibility: http://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=21612&p=196513#p196513) |
||
| Line 99: | Line 99: | ||
= Lack of Support and Backwards Compatibility = | = Lack of Support and Backwards Compatibility = | ||
FlightGear is a volunteer effort and no one is paying several thousand dollars a year for software and related support each year. Since legacy support is expensive (IE. time/effort) one of the ways a project like FlightGear deals with this is to limit legacy support. If this were not the case then time/effort would be expended on legacy support that could be used for new features and bug fixes. Like most things there are trade offs involved. Which do you want - more advanced FlightGear and aircraft or better support for older versions? This is a common issue for open source software and most prefer to look forward rather than looking back. | FlightGear is a volunteer effort and no one is paying several thousand dollars a year for software and related support each year. Since legacy support is expensive (IE. time/effort) one of the ways a project like FlightGear deals with this is to limit legacy support. If this were not the case then time/effort would be expended on legacy support that could be used for new features and bug fixes. Like most things there are trade offs involved. Which do you want - more advanced FlightGear and aircraft or better support for older versions? This is a common issue for open source software and most prefer to look forward rather than looking back. | ||
For JSBSim there been has incremental changes in almost every version of FlightGear. These changes did things like add features or change the way a specific feature acted. For example around FG 2.4 there where changes to the engine cooling code (to allow modeling of cooling systems with things like cowl flaps) and also to the nose/tail wheel steering code (to allow toggling between locked and swiveling steering wheels). Many aircraft are unaffected by these changes because they don't make use of the enhancements but some aircraft do use these enhancements. For example the JSBSim P-51D uses both of these features and it probably will not work correctly (IE. it will over heat/run cold or not have correct ground handling) if used with FG versions before 2.4. There is also the possibility that it will throw all kinds of error messages when used with an older version of FG but none of this has been tested at least by me. So it may be OK with a few missing features on 1.9.1 or it may fail totally. We simply do not know. If someone complains about the JSBSim P-51D not running correctly on FG 1.9.1 my reply is too bad you need to upgade to 2.4 or later and get back to me if things aren't working after the upgrade. There may be other more recent features that other aircraft use/leverage that don't affect the P-51D so I think this is a significant issue. | |||
In addition, FlightGear itself has been a moving target with a constant stream of new features and enhancements some of which require changes to at least some aircraft. | |||
= You need development guidelines = | = You need development guidelines = | ||