Re: [gentoo-dev] New eclass: ros-catkin.eclass, new USE_EXPAND: ROS_MESSAGES, new categories: dev-ros and ros-meta for review.

[wireless]

On 09/22/2015 03:26 AM, Alexis Ballier wrote:
> On Thu, 17 Sep 2015 18:36:06 +0200
> Alexis Ballier <aballier@g.o> wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> As part of an effort of bringing ros (http://www.ros.org/) to Gentoo,
>> I've come up with the following design:
>>
>> ros-catkin.eclass that is a template, merging all common code for
>> catkinized ros packages.
>>
>> ROS_MESSAGES will be a new USE_EXPANDed variable: ROS is message
>> based, processes write and listen to some topic, and a topic is typed
>> with a message. Messages are defined by simple text files but are then
>> pre-processed for easy usage in C++, Python & co.
>>
>> Several packages are usually bundled in a single repository, with a
>> meta-package pulling all the others. Hence, I came with two new
>> categories: dev-ros for single packages, ros-meta for those
>> meta-packages.
>>
>> Some numbers:
>>   /bin/ls ros-meta | wc -l
>> 52
>>   /bin/ls dev-ros | wc -l
>> 350
>>
>>
>> I think maybe half of them are in a state that they can be added to
>> gentoo-x86.
>>
>>
>> ebuild example:
>>
>> $ cat roslib-1.12.2.ebuild
>> # Copyright 1999-2014 Gentoo Foundation
>> # Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2
>> # $Header: $
>>
>> EAPI=5
>>
>> ROS_REPO_URI="https://github.com/ros/ros"
>> KEYWORDS="~amd64 ~arm"
>> PYTHON_COMPAT=( python{2_7,3_3,3_4} )
>> ROS_SUBDIR=core/${PN}
>>
>> inherit ros-catkin
>>
>> DESCRIPTION="Base dependencies and support libraries for ROS"
>> LICENSE="BSD"
>> SLOT="0"
>> IUSE=""
>>
>> RDEPEND="
>>          dev-python/rospkg[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
>>          dev-libs/boost:=[threads]
>>          dev-ros/rospack
>> "
>> DEPEND="${RDEPEND}
>>          test? ( dev-ros/rosmake ros-meta/ros )"
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Eclass inlined at the end.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Alexis.
>
>
> Since there hasn't been comments in a few days, I'm proceeding with the
> above plan. (with hasufel's eclass review taken into account of course)
>
> Alexis.

Hi Alexis.

As  a gentoo user, an ebuild hacker and engineer, I'd suggest you 
include a wiki page for gentoo users, to document the gentoo specific 
issues. I'm a big fan of the new gentoo wiki. Access to either a 
'virtual robot', or where to purchase devices that use ROS, would at 
least greatly facilitate folks  to participate with ROS  robotics codes. 
  Include links to  the main  ROS repos, and relevant other urls.
For example; one of the common things missing in such projects is
an example linux kernel, stripped to optimize only the size and 
performance of the ROS devices and software. Showing this kernel .config
would be keen. At list discussion why some of the key kernel configs
are select is sorely missing in the world of robotic and UAVs, imho.

  You may also what to include 'hooks' to relevant and commonly used 
embedded boards with ROS hardware. I am working on clustering for gentoo 
using mesos + zookeeper + apache-spark (we have 2/3 in overlays now). 
Lots of robotic work now attempts to use the power of the cluster over 
an Rf link and/or use many robots computational resources, as a mere 
node in a cluster.


I for one have been looking for such a project, if It combines
robotics issues with (UAV) issues. After all, all UAVs are robots, with 
additional constraints.


hth,
James