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PCB Roadmap

This is a guide to the future direction of the PCB layout editor.

General Guidelines for Releases

In general, there are three types of changes that go into PCB - bug fixes, new features, and incompatible changes. A bug fix is when PCB doesn't do what it's supposed to do - this includes documentation bugs as well as code problems. A new feature is something that adds functionality to PCB but doesn't change any existing functionality. An incompatible change is anything that causes (intentional) compatibility issues with older versions of PCB, and usually means a large design change. Note that a new feature that adds a backwards-incompatible change to the file format when it's used is not in this category.

The current plans are as follows:

At the moment, bugfix releases will be of the form pcb-YYYYMMDD. Once 4.0 is released, the major.minor.bugfix numbers will correspond to the three categories listed above: bugfixes cause a *.*.N release, new features cause a *.N release, major changes cause a N.0 release. The YYYYMMDD release numbers will then be used for regular non-release snapshots.

The remainder of this page will list the various changes that are planned (or at least hoped for) for upcoming and future releases.

Bugs, patches, and feature requests should be added to the Launchpad trackers. The default status undecided. Requests with that priority will be considered “unreviewed”.

Next Bug Release

This is a list of fixes that must be fixed before the next bug release, in addition to any “next bug release” artifacts in the bug tracker.

Future Bug Releases

This is a list of fixes that should be fixed eventually.

Next Feature Release

This is a list of new features that will be added before the next feature release (or, perhaps the next bug release, if time permits).

Future Feature Releases

Other features that should be added eventually.

Next Incompatible Release

This is a list of major changes that we think are desirable to include in PCB, and wish to put effort into.

Future Incompatible Releases

This is a list of other major changes that we think are desirable to include in PCB, but so far have not committed any effort to.

Wish List

This section lists possible projects for future releases, which either haven't been agreed on, or haven't been scheduled. If you'd like to work on one of these, go ahead :-)