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FOP Status

Current Status of FOP

Status

[last updated October 30, 2005]

Planning and branches of FOP development

This is the development status of Apache FOP. A branch has been created for maintenance releases while the development is done to address various performance and design issues. Development on the maintenance branch has been halted as the focus was transferred entirely to the redesign effort.

Development Status

Development for FOP Trunk (aka Redesign) is addressing the design issues for layout and performance. The new design is focusing on making it possible to be conformant to the spec and be able to handle large documents.

The first preview release will have the following: similar functionality to previous FOP releases (although not in every point), some new features (like keeps on all implemented FOs), a rough API and a suitable design for developers to work on more functionality.

We originally targeted for October 2005 to publish the first preview release but it takes a little longer than expected to prepare everything for the release. The first (unstable) preview release can be expected in mid-November 2005.

We now have a good overall design and have been able to add several new features besides recreating most of the features from 0.20.5. We are doing ongoing work to make it easier for newbies to jump in and help. Furthermore, an extensive test suite helps us maintain and improve the quality of the package.

Of course, we also welcome any help on the layout managers. So if you want to push your brain to the limit, come and join us! But don't worry: there are also various other locations where you can find an easier start into the code. And we're glad to help you get jumpstarted. Just ask!

If you're looking for a road-map we have to disappoint you. This is Open Source and we're mostly voluteers working in their free time. What we have is an idea where we want to go. How fast we get there depends on the available time, on how well our ideas work out while developing and on you!

Maintenance Status

The latest maintenance release is FOP 0.20.5, released on July 18th, 2003. See release notes for more details. The maintenance branch has been frozen in 2004 so the team can concentrate on the redesign efforts.