Could you provide some documentation on the roadmap, planned changes and additions, and the implications on current and future development practices?

I'm currently designing and writing a very large scale application suite. I've seem various mentions that netkernel v4 is being re-engineered. I'm concerned that  some of the work I'm currently doing based around netkernel v3.3 will be negated and either be less-than-optimal or require re-writing for v4.

This would really help developers who need to plan the next year or so ahead to ensure they aren't caught-out, and can make plans to ensure a smooth migration of applications (and/or interoperability with v3.3 and v4).

Hi TJ,

The next generation NK4 kernel is a completely new architecture and it extends and refines NetKernel's resource oriented abstraction.  We have completed the kernel and are working on the higher order elements - things like a completely new metadata model.

As far as planning ahead.  NetKernel 4 is a whole new world but the existing NetKernel 3 ROC model will operate on it pretty closely. For example NetKernel 3 modules are supported on NetKernel 4 and the NKF API is very similar.  So apps built to the existing NK3 ROC model will port quite readily to NK 4.  But the exciting part is that NK4 reveals a whole new dimension to ROC - its in these new areas that we are still working through concepts and implementation details.

We're really excited to reveal this stuff but we want to make sure that the core is really well worked through before releasing it.  Our plan is that we'll be starting a public preview programme in the spring so that people can start to get a feel for the new opportunities and to start to feedback into the product SKU development.

Rest assured we are not going to abandon NK3 users.  We have many customers with long-term production systems on NK3 and we will continue to support it for many years.  For example the new Purls.org is being built on NK3 - the last purls.org has been in stable production for 12 years - so there are some really long term projects committed to a stable NK 3 infrastructure.

I'll ask Randy to post a detailed feature list for NK 4 when he gets back after the New Year break.

Cheers,

Peter

PS I'd be very interested to hear what your planning.  People are starting to do some really cool things with NK now and its great to be able to tell others about them.

hi,

it finally is springtime in the north of germany and i wonder / hope / eagerly await / feel the unsurpassable urge to nag... if an alpha is already available? just to play with?

greets
thomas

Thomas,

Thanks for you question!

Work on NetKernel 4 is progressing well. With each major step forward we continue to see the benefits of the new simpler, small core.

We have decided to provide the first pre-release of NetKernel 4 to the attendees of the NetKernel 2008 Architects' weekend in late September and many of the sessions that weekend will be focused on the new features and capabilities.

Thank you for your continued interest and patience.

Randy