CONTENTS External Libraries Supported Platforms Unsupported Platforms Obtaining Supported Platform Status EXTERNAL LIBRARIES The version of ROOT is correlated to the version of the MINOS off-line software as listed in Installing MINOS software: Frozen Releases SUPPORTED PLATFORMS A ``platform'' is defined as the combination of Operating System, Hardware Architecture, and Compiler. Supported platforms are officially mandated for maintenance and distribution of offline software. These platforms must satisfy a set of requirements to obtain and retain "supported" status. The core group strongly recommends that users work on supported platforms. Any group buying hardware specifically to run the off-line software should contact the core group to discuss which core supported platform to purchase. Hardware Operating System Compiler Supporter x86 Red Hat 7.3 or 9 (deprecated at FNAL) gcc 3.2 or 3.3 Core group x86 Fermi LTS / Scientific Linux gcc 3.3 Core group mips IRIX 6.5 gcc 3.2 Liz Buckley-Geer x86 Debian gcc 3.2 Brett Viren powerpc MacOSX 10.3 (Panther, not Jaguar) gcc 3.3 George Irwin The ongoing maintenance burden of multiple platforms can be offset by the advantages of diversity. Some benefits which accrue from having at least two platforms include: robustness against future changes in the marketplace help in debugging UNSUPPORTED PLATFORMS Any platform that is not explicitly supported is an unsupported platform. Unsupported platforms are to be officially ignored, but the core group will show a "willingness to avoid gratuitous choices which lock out such platforms unnecessarily, to the extent the core group is made aware of such issues by platform advocates." Choosing an unsupported platform may involve little risk or a lot, but in any event, the core group offers no guarantees. OBTAINING SUPPORTED PLATFORM STATUS The following are required to obtain and retain supported platform status:- There must be a clear justification for supporting the platform. MINOS distributed software must compile and run on the platform. Third party software upon which MINOS software depends must be be available for and run as expected on the platform. There must be sufficient expertise and manpower to install, maintain and distribute software for the platform and to handle special requirements of the hardware. Platform advocates may be required to provide this effort. Evolution of the code itself could break the first of these conditions and by implication revoke supported platform status. To cover this:- Guideline for extending feature-set Before extending the set of features exploited on a particular "supported" platform, the feature advocate(s) must assure that the new features work uniformly on all supported platforms.

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