Life Cycle

We provide these policies in an effort to provide as much transparency as possible. However, we reserve the right to make exceptions to these policies as conflicts arise.

---

• Version naming, compatibility policy, schedule
  • Standard versions
  • Patch versions
• Support policy for operating system versions
• Support policy for compiler versions
• Third party library version update
• Deprecation process

---

Version naming, compatibility policy, schedule

As of 2023, all Open Inventor versions are named using the year of the version release, such as Open Inventor 2024.1.2. The first number is the year when the version is published. The second number specifies the standard version number. The third number specifies the patch number. For instance, Open Inventor 2023.1 specifies the first standard version published in 2023. Open Inventor 2024.2.3 specifies the third patch of the second standard version published in 2024.

Standard and patch versions are published with this schedule:

.

The green rectangles represent the period during which a standard version is maintained, and during which we may release corresponding patch versions for that standard version.

Standard and patch versions have different levels of constraint for the compatibility, the third party library, the added features or components, and the removed features or components.

Standard versions:

• Introduce enhancements and new features, but preserve, as much as possible, source code compatibility. New classes might be added, as well as new methods or fields in existing classes. As such, the source code of an application must be re-compiled.
• A module or extension may be removed, a new one may be added.
• Support for an operating system version may be ended.
• The service pack/upgrade applied to an operating system may be upgraded.
• Support for a compiler version may be ended.
• The service pack applied to a compiler may be upgraded.
• A public API may become deprecated (modules, classes, methods, fields, enum).
• A deprecated API may be removed.
• The compilers generate warnings for each reference to a deprecated API in the application's source code.
• A third-party library may be added, removed, or updated to a new version.
• All bug fixed in previous patch versions are also fixed in a new standard version.
• A demo can be updated. A new demo can be added.
• A release note is published and the API documentation is updated.
• A standard version is tagged "standard" in the documentation (release notes, API manual, developer zone ...)
• Two standard versions should be released each year.

Patch versions:

• Contain only bug fixes.
• No new features added.
• A patch version preserves, as much as possible, binary compatibility. However, we suggest recompiling your application.
• The name of Open Inventor libraries does not change.
• Some demos can be updated.
• The API documentation may be improved.
• The list of bugs fixed is published in the developer zone, but no new release notes.
• There is no precise frequency of release of patch version. For instance 2 or 3 patch versions may be released before the next standard version is released. That depends on the number of bugs fixed and/or their criticality.

Support policy for operating system versions

Once a version of an OS is no longer supported at the standard level, the subsequent version of Open Inventor will still be based on this OS, but it will be the last one. For example:

• For a given version of Windows, Microsoft officially provides support for five years, for more information see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/?products=windows
• For a given version of RHEL, we consider end of Maintenance Support 2 phase as end of standard support, for more information see https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata

New standard versions of Open Inventor are always released with the latest version of the service packs/updates available for the OS at the time of the release.

Support policy for compiler versions

Once a version of a compiler is no longer supported at the standard level, the subsequent version of Open Inventor will still be based on this compiler version, but it will be the last one. For example, for a given version of Visual Studio, Microsoft officially provides support for five years, for more information see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/?products=vs). New standard versions of Open Inventor are released with the latest version of any service packs available for the compiler at the time of the release.

Third party library version updates

To introduce new features in Open Inventor, a third party library can be added in a standard version of Open Inventor. A third party library can be updated in any standard version of Open Inventor. Any such change to a third party library may require changes to the application build and/or deployment, especially if the application uses a version of this library directly. Third party libraries used by Open Inventor include file format libraries (e.g. JPEG), Qt, and others. You can see the list of third party libraries used by Open Inventor in section Files to distribute

Deprecation process

"Deprecated" means that a feature is still available and produces the same result but a better way of doing the same thing is available and should be used instead. Deprecated methods in Open Inventor classes are marked in the documentation along with an explanation of the replacement method(s).

A class, method or field may become deprecated in a standard version. The compilers generate warnings for each reference to a deprecated Open Inventor API in the application's source code. The demos provided with Open Inventor packages are updated and do not use any deprecated API. A deprecated API may be removed in a later standard version. In general, a deprecated API remains available for 2 standard versions.