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kbenson
Visitor

SDK release timeline?

Is there any chance of getting a timeline for future SDK releases, and if possible what features are planned for them (or at least the next release, in case you actually have target dates for more than one)? If there isn't a formalized release schedule, I'm formally registering my vote that there be one. I think the benefits to both Roku and the developer community would be immeasurable.

Now, I'll outline my perfect world idea of how this would function 🙂
Please excuse the redundancy below.

Roku adds a feature to the developer site to allow for toggling which firmware is running, the latest public or the latest developer release. The developer release is the preview of new features that will be in the new public release, which is submitted to developers to test for bugs and develop against before the new release is public.

Public releases are scheduled every 4-6 months, and ideally 30 or more days before the public release is scheduled, the feature set is frozen and a developer release is generated (hopefully there have been a few before this as well), and the developers can use this to test for bugs in the implementation and test their apps against.

7 days before any public release, there's a complete code freeze and no NEW bugs (that haven't already been decided to let through) get submitted that would stop the release.

The benefits to this to Roku are:
* A built in beta tester audience, and one that will really stress any new features.
* Less bugs
* Lag time between new features/releases and third party apps that make use of them will be reduced significantly
* Increased developer participation and community

The benefits to the developers are:
* Visible progress towards new features
* Increased involvement in the release process
* Less bugs
* Ability to target new releases before they are public

In addition I still think having a developer wiki would be a good idea, and I'll add to that a formalized location to submit and track bugs would be useful as well. In fact, a bug tracker could easily handle feature requests as well and be sorted appropriately into proposed feature, targeted feature, etc. Some bug trackers allow voting,...

P.S.
I'm NOT trying to tell you how to run your business, I just think the above would be awesome, and wanted to present my case. I understand that there's quite a bit about the internal structure of your development in both technical and procedure terms that I don't and can't know, and that may preclude any or all of the above from being feasible. Still, I figured I'd put it out there in case you were investigating new ways to do the releases....
-- GandK Labs
Check out Reversi! in the channel store!
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2 REPLIES 2
RokuKevin
Visitor

Re: SDK release timeline?

We would also like developer's feedback on new firmware releases before we distribute to end users. We do require some discretion when getting early access to these builds as you may get a preview of features we do not want the general market to see.

Please visit this link http://surveyanalytics.com/t/AEJgCZHuSy to read about the terms of our beta program and sign up to get early access to some firmware builds.

--Kevin.
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kbenson
Visitor

Re: SDK release timeline?

That sounds great! A few quick questions before I sign up tonight:
1) Are the new features clearly outlined in each firmware release outlined, so I know what can be discussed?
2) Is there a way to back down to the public firmware so I can determine if behavior I'm seeing is due to the new firmware?

I have access to a second Roku that I had reserved for family use, so switching firmware is not a huge problem for me, but I can imagine it being problematic for others.
-- GandK Labs
Check out Reversi! in the channel store!
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