2024Q1 Roadmap

Q4 progress

During the last quarter of 2024, we finally finished our audit and testing of Toga. We now have 100% branch coverage on every line of Toga's core, and on the macOS, Windows, GTK, Android and iOS backends. We published Toga 0.4, incorporating all these changes - but it also meant that we were able to start adding new features to Toga, including an OptionContainer widget on iOS, and a draft of a Camera API for iOS and macOS. Toga's new test framework has made adding these new features must easier - for example, we were able to very rapidly identify (and resolve) gaps in functionality in the new iOS OptionContainer widget by running the existing test suite on a new implementation. We expect that this testing foundation will continue to serve us well as we add more features in the coming year.

The other major development for the quarter was the start of the upstreaming process for Python on mobile platforms. PEP730, proposing the addition of iOS to the Tier 3 supported list of CPython core, has been ratified by the steering council; and PEP738, proposing the same for Android, is in draft form. The first patch contributing towards iOS support has already landed.

Q1 priorities

Our Q1 goals are:

• Complete upstreaming iOS and Android support patches to CPython core. We will finalise PEP738 and submit it for ratification; and we'll continue upstreaming the iOS and Android patches that we've been maintaining independently. This work has a hard deadline of May 7, as that is when Python 3.13.0b1 is planned, which is the feature cutoff for Python 3.13 development, so making sure we hit that deadline will be our main priority.
• Add OptionContainer for Android. The implementation on iOS was relatively straightforward; we have no reason to believe that the Android implementation will be any more complicated.
• Complete the implementation of the Camera API. We have a draft PR implementing a Camera API on macOS and iOS; we'll extend this API to Android, and complete the work on Briefcase that is needed to add support for permissions.
• Add an API for geolocation, and a Map widget. Geolocation is another major hardware features that is common on phones; we need to write a cross-platform layer for that hardware, plus add a native mapping widget to show off this capability.

Longer term goals

For the remainder of this year, you can expect to see three major themes in BeeWare development.

Firstly, we're going to continue to work upstreaming the work BeeWare has done in the mobile space into the wider CPython community. Once iOS and Android have been incorporated into CPython core, the focus will move to the packaging ecosystem. This means adding official support to upload iOS and Android packages to PyPI, and making it easy for third party projects to incorporate iOS and Android builds into their release processes.

Secondly, we'll be increasing our efforts in education and training. BeeWare has a tutorial that we're extremely proud of - but there are many things we could add to that tutorial, and there are plenty of "How To" and topic guides that could be written for those who have finished the tutorial and want to try more advanced ideas.

Thirdly, we'll continue to expand the capabilities of Toga. There are a handful of high profile widgets and capabilities that have been patiently waiting for us to have a stable platform to build on, and the spare capacity to implement them - features like a Radio Button widget, Trees and Tables on mobile platforms, a cross-platform Settings API, and cross-platform cloud file access.

Summary

2024 promises to be a very exciting year for BeeWare. For the last 2 years, we've been focused on consolidating and stabilizing existing features. That work is coming to a close, which will allow us to turn our attention to building new features that show off the stable foundation we've built, and to providing the resources that will allow more users to try BeeWare for themselves.