The release deliverables have the same form as previous releases, namely:
- Source code release for all Orion project deliverables, available as versions tagged "R0_5" in the Orion project Git repositories.
- Packaged Orion server download for Windows, Mac, and Linux
- Hosted Orion beta server on http://orionhub.org
Compatibility of Release 0.5 with 0.4
Orion 0.5 offers no formal compatibility with Orion 0.4. While some plugins designed for Orion 0.4 may continue to function when installed in Orion 0.5, there may be changes to APIs and library functions used by the plugin that have changed in incompatible ways that prevent it from installing or operating properly.
Orion cannot currently be used as the basis for internationalized products. One of the plan items for the 0.5 release is to continue the work into finalizing an internationalization framework and applying it to the user interface. Only English strings are in plan to be provided.
In order to remain current, each Orion project release targets reasonably current operating environments. We focus our testing on a handful of popular combinations of operating systems, Web browsers, and Java platforms; these are our reference platforms. Orion undoubtedly runs fine in many operating environments beyond the reference platforms we test. However, since we do not systematically test them we cannot vouch for them. Problems encountered when running Orion on a non-reference platform that cannot be recreated on any reference platform will be given lower priority than problems with running Orion on a reference platform.
Orion has two broad classes of target environments:
- Client target environments Indicates environments supported for end users of Orion-based web applications.
- Server target environments Indicates requirements for the platform where the Orion server is installed.
Most of the Orion client code is built on HTML5, CSS3, and ECMAScript 5 (JavaScript). As such, the chief dependence is on a web browser that supplies rendering and interpretation of these languages. In general, Orion requires the most recent major release of the major browsers it supports. Due to the fast pace of development in the browser world, supporting older browser versions is not a priority for Orion at this early stage of its development.
Orion 0.5 is tested and validated on the following reference client target environments:
table.platforms { border-width: 1px; border-spacing: 0px; border-style: solid; border-collapse: separate; } table.platforms th { border-width: 1px; padding: 3px; border-style: inset; border-color: black; background-color: #B9A9FF; } table.platforms td { border-width: 1px 1px 1px 1px; padding: 3px 3px 3px 3px; border-style: inset inset inset inset; border-color: gray gray gray gray; } table.platforms tr.c0 td { background-color: #FDFDFD; } table.platforms tr.c1 td { background-color: #F4EEFF; } Operating SystemVersionBrowsersWindows7ChromeFirefoxInternet Explorer 9.0Red Hat Enterprise Linux6ChromeFirefoxApple Mac OS X10.7.2Safari 5.1.1
Most of the Orion server code is "pure" Java code and has no direct dependence on the underlying operating system. The chief dependence is therefore on the Java Platform itself. Portions are targeted to specific classes of operating environments, requiring their source code to only reference facilities available in particular class libraries (e.g. Java SE 5, Java SE 6, etc). In general, the 0.5 release of the Orion server is developed and tested on Java SE 6.
The Orion 0.5 server is tested and validated on the following reference server target environments:
Operating SystemVersionHardwareJREWindows7x86 32-bitOracle Java 6 Update 29
IBM Java 6 SR9 FP2 x86 64-bitRed Hat Enterprise Linux6x86 32-bitOracle Java 6 Update 29
IBM Java 6 SR9 FP2 x86 64-bitApple Mac OS X10.7Universal 64-bitJava for Mac OS X 10.7 Update 1
As stated above, we expect that Orion works fine on other current Java VM and OS versions but we cannot flag these as reference platforms without significant community support for testing them.
Language Tooling
Orion 0.4 saw an increase in language tooling through the use of external components such as CodeMirror. Work has started on integrating Esprima into Orion for both syntax highlighting, outline views and potentially syntax checking. In addition through investigations on workflows, deeper support for Python, Ruby and PHP may be considered. The debug platform progressed in 0.4 and work will continue alongside the console investigations. Since work on Globalization has begun within Orion, it will be a focus to provide tooling to assist with JavaScript localization.
Platform
This theme includes currency with the existing 3rd party libraries used and providing existing and new core features that are modular.
User Experience
In 0.4 there was signifiant work done to improve the look, feel and usibility of the UI. In 0.5 this effort will continue, focussing on cross site integration. In addition, several items were carried over from 0.4.
Infrastructure
This theme includes currency with the existing 3rd party libraries used and providing existing and new core features that are modular.