As with any projects involving software or databases, the products
of our division often evolve through different stages of development
and maintenance. Depending on the progress of the work and available
resources, a project may be in a state of active development, or be finished
or even obsolete, and any state in between.
We define the following four stages in the product lifecycle
to assist you in assessing the stability and maintenance level
of various software and database resources to be found on our site.
Each project should include an status indicator using one of these
keywords.
- Active development
- The software/database is under active development at NIST. Preliminary
versions may be publicly distributed. Feedback on performance and
usability are encouraged. Future versions of the software may be
incompatible.
- Active maintenance
- The software/database is no longer under active development,
although routine enhancements and updates may still be issued.
Feedback regarding potential errors is encouraged, and all
non-trivial errors will be repaired.
- Minimal maintenance
- The software/database is nearly static. Reported errors will
be repaired only if they are very serious.
- Not maintained
- The software/database is offered as is.
No maintenance will be performed.
