Platform Support Plan for HOOPS and Ceetron SDKs
This information covers the HOOPS suite of products including Exchange, Publish, Visualize, Luminate and Communicator as well as the Ceetron products including Access, Mesh, Solve and Envision.
Introduction
In order to provide a simpler, smoother, and higher quality developer experience for our HOOPS partners, we are beginning to unify the operating systems, architectures, and build tools used for each of the HOOPS products. Making these products more consistent with each other will require several changes. We’re announcing these changes in advance so that our partners can plan accordingly. We understand that changing these foundational technologies has a significant impact on our partners. We only make changes when there is compelling reason to do so, and we will try to give ample notice for partners to adjust as changes occur.
If you have any questions about these changes, please contact support@techsoft3d.com.
Deprecation
Deprecation applies to both functionality (e.g. support for a specific platform) and SDK API. The process starts with an announcement. Details are described below.
Deprecation of Functionality
We may designate functionalities within our products as deprecated. This means that the designated workflow, feature, platform configuration (including operating system or architecture), engineering tool (such as a compiler), or other component is End of Support; it is our strongest indication that partners should find an alternative for a particular functionality. In particular:
We plan to remove this functionality in the near future. The time frame to remove a functionality will vary in each instance. We may deprecate a functionality without indicating a removal date.
We urge partners to discontinue use of this functionality as soon as possible.
We will not fix defects related to this functionality.
Deprecation of APIs
We may designate specific APIs within our products as deprecated. That means that the designated function, class, enumeration, or other language construct is targeted for removal at a later date. This deprecation process will happen in three stages.
Deprecation Announcement: In this stage the deprecated APIs will be noted in the Release Notes, in the API Reference Manual, and in a compiler warning message. This step will be informational only; the API will not be removed and its behavior will not be changed.
Deprecation: In this stage the deprecated API will be moved or renamed in some way to explicitly indicate that it is deprecated. This will be a syntax-breaking change, with the intent that users must change their code to acknowledge use of the deprecated API. The precise mechanism of the syntax change will be language and context dependent. This breaking change will only occur in a major version release of a product, where the primary version number is updated (cf. HOOPS Target General Availability Dates | 1.2. RELEASE PLAN).
Removal: In this stage the deprecated API will be completely removed from the product.
The time frame to remove an API will vary in each instance. Partners are urged to discontinue using deprecated APIs as early as possible.