initial draft of the quality declaration

README.md

@@ -1,2 +1,21 @@
-# rcl
+This repository contains several packages which are all related to the `rcl` package.
+
+### Packages
+
+#### rcl
+
 Library to support implementation of language specific ROS Client Libraries.
+
+This package claims to be in the **Quality Level 1** category, see the [Quality Declaration](./rcl/QUALITY_DECLARATION.md) for more details.
+
+#### rcl_action
+
+Package containing a C-based ROS action implementation.
+
+#### rcl_lifecycle
+
+Package containing a C-based lifecycle implementation.
+
+#### rcl_yaml_parm_parser
+
+Package containing various utility types and functions for C.

rcl/QUALITY_DECLARATION.md

@@ -0,0 +1,203 @@
+This document is a declaration of software quality for the `rcl` package, based on the guidelines in [REP-2004](https://www.ros.org/reps/rep-2004.html).
+
+# `rcl` Quality Declaration
+
+The package `rcl` claims to be in the **Quality Level 1** category.
+
+Below are the rationales, notes, and caveats for this claim, organized by each requirement listed in the [Package Requirements for Quality Level 1 in REP-2004](https://www.ros.org/reps/rep-2004.html).
+
+## Version Policy
+
+### Version Scheme
+
+`rcl` uses `semver` according to the recommendation for ROS Core packages in the [ROS 2 Developer Guide](https://index.ros.org/doc/ros2/Contributing/Developer-Guide/#versioning), and is at or above a stable version, i.e. `>= 1.0.0`.
+
+### API Stability Within a Released ROS Distribution
+
+`rcl` will not break public API within a released ROS distribution, i.e. no major releases once the ROS distribution is released.
+
+### ABI Stability Within a Released ROS Distribution
+
+`rcl` contains C code and therefore must be concerned with ABI stability, and will maintain ABI stability within a ROS distribution.
+
+### Public API Declaration
+
+All symbols in the installed headers are considered part of the public API.
+
+All installed headers are in the `include` directory of the package, headers in any other folders are not installed and considered private.
+
+## Change Control Process
+
+TODO fix link
+
+`rcl` follows the recommended guidelines for ROS Core packages in the [ROS 2 Developer Guide](https://index.ros.org/doc/ros2/Contributing/Developer-Guide/#change_control_process).
+
+This includes:
+
+- all changes occur through a pull request
+- all pull request have two peer reviews
+- all pull request must pass CI on all [tier 1 platforms](https://www.ros.org/reps/rep-2000.html#support-tiers)
+- all pull request must resolve related documentation changes before merging
+
+## Documentation
+
+### Feature Documentation
+
+TODO fix link
+
+`rcl` has a [feature list](TODO) and each item in the list links to the corresponding feature documentation.
+There is documentation for all of the features, and new features require documentation before being added.
+
+### Public API Documentation
+
+TODO fix link
+
+`rcl` has embedded API documentation and it is generated using doxygen and is [hosted](TODO) along side the feature documentation.
+There is documentation for all of the public API, and new additions to the public API require documentation before being added.
+
+### License
+
+The license for `rcl` is Apache 2.0, and a summary is in each source file, the type is declared in the `package.xml` manifest file, and a full copy of the license is in the `LICENSE` file.
+
+There is an automated test which runs a linter that ensures each file has a license statement.
+
+### Copyright Statements
+
+The copyright holders each provide a statement of copyright in each source code file in `rcl`.
+
+There is an automated test which runs a linter that ensures each file has at least one copyright statement.
+
+## Testing
+
+### Feature Testing
+
+Each feature in `rcl` has corresponding tests which simulate typical usage, and they are located in the `test` directory.
+New features are required to have tests before being added.
+
+### Public API Testing
+
+Each part of the public API have tests, and new additions or changes to the public API require tests before being added.
+The tests aim to cover both typical usage and corner cases, but are quantified by contributing to code coverage.
+
+### Coverage
+
+TODO fix link
+
+`rcl` follows the recommendations for ROS Core packages in the [ROS 2 Developer Guide](https://index.ros.org/doc/ros2/Contributing/Developer-Guide/#coverage), and opts to use branch coverage instead of line coverage.
+
+This includes:
+
+- tracking and reporting branch coverage statistics
+- achieving and maintaining branch coverage at or above 95%
+- no lines are manually skipped in coverage calculations
+
+Changes are required to make a best effort to keep or increase coverage before being accepted, but decreases are allowed if properly justified and accepted by reviewers.
+
+Current coverage statistics can be viewed here:
+
+TODO FIXME
+
+### Performance
+
+TODO fix link
+
+`rcl` follows the recommendations for performance testing of C code in the [ROS 2 Developer Guide](https://index.ros.org/doc/ros2/Contributing/Developer-Guide/#performance-c), and opts to do performance analysis on each release rather than each change.
+
+TODO how to run perf tests, where do they live, etc.
+
+TODO exclusions of parts of the code from perf testing listed here? or linked to?
+
+### Linters and Static Analysis
+
+TODO fix link
+
+`rcl` uses and passes all the standard linters and static analysis tools for a C package as described in the [ROS 2 Developer Guide](https://index.ros.org/doc/ros2/Contributing/Developer-Guide/#linters-and-static-analysis).
+
+TODO any qualifications on what "passing" means for certain linters
+
+## Dependencies
+
+Below are evaluations of each of `rcl`'s run-time and build-time dependencies that have been determined to influence the quality.
+
+It has several "buildtool" dependencies, which do not affect the resulting quality of the package, because they do not contribute to the public library API.
+It also has several test dependencies, which do not affect the resulting quality of the package, because they are only used to build and run the test code.
+
+### `rmw`
+
+TODO fix link
+
+The `rmw` package provides the API used by `rcl` to interact with the underlying middleware in an abstract way.
+
+It is **Quality Level 1**, see its [Quality Declaration document](FIX).
+
+### `rcl_interfaces`
+
+TODO fix link
+
+The `rcl_interfaces` package provides some common ROS Message and ROS Service types which are used to implement certain client library features.
+
+It is **Quality Level 1**, see its [Quality Declaration document](FIX).
+
+### `rcl_logging_spdlog`
+
+TODO fix link
+TODO should this direct dependency be here?
+
+The `rcl_logging_spdlog` package provides the default logging implementation by wrapping the `spdlog` library.
+
+It is **Quality Level 1**, see its [Quality Declaration document](FIX).
+
+### `rcl_yaml_param_parser`
+
+TODO fix link
+
+The `rcl_yaml_param_parser` package provides an API that is used to parse YAML configuration files which may be used to configure ROS and specific nodes.
+
+It is **Quality Level 1**, see its [Quality Declaration document](FIX).
+
+### `rcutils`
+
+TODO fix link
+
+The `rcutils` package provides an API which contains common utilities and data structures needed when programming in C.
+
+It is **Quality Level 1**, see its [Quality Declaration document](FIX).
+
+### `rmw_implementation`
+
+TODO fix link
+
+The `rmw_implementation` package provides access to the default rmw implementation, and provides the ability to dynamically switch rmw implementations if more than one is available.
+
+It is **Quality Level 1**, see its [Quality Declaration document](FIX).
+
+### `rosidl_generator_c`
+
+TODO fix link
+
+The `rosidl_generator_c` package provides templates for generating data structures in C based on user defined ROS Messages and ROS Services, as well as associated support functions for those types.
+`rcl` uses this pacakge because it uses the C instances of these user defined types in some cases, in combination with the types defined in the `rcl_interfaces` package.
+
+It is **Quality Level 1**, see its [Quality Declaration document](FIX).
+
+### `tinydir_vendor`
+
+TODO fix link
+
+The `tinydir_vendor` package wraps the third-party library called `tinydir`, which itself provides some basic filesystem operations.
+
+It is **Quality Level 1**, see its [Quality Declaration document](FIX).
+
+### `tracetools`
+
+TODO fix link
+
+The `tracetools` package provides utilities for instrumenting the code in `rcl` so that it may be traced for debugging and performance analysis.
+
+It is **Quality Level 1**, see its [Quality Declaration document](FIX).
+
+## Platform Support
+
+`rcl` supports all of the tier 1 platforms as described in [REP-2000](https://www.ros.org/reps/rep-2000.html#support-tiers), and tests each change against all of them.
+
+TODO make additional statements about non-tier 1 platforms?