Specification updates and API freeze suggestions

Dear Orocos partners,

It's about time to close the ranks and work towards a unified 1.0
release. At least for some parts of Orocos. (As a matter of fact, not
all parts _have_ to follow the same release schedule.)

I worked hard at getting the documentation updated for all things needed
to define a proper motion API for simple robots, such as a 6R industrial
robot. I give an outline of the changes and "decisions" below, but
please consult the cited documents for concrete criticism.

I revised the design motivations behind the choice of API in
  <http://www.orocos.org/documentation/decoupling.html>
  <http://www.orocos.org/documentation/deep-shallow-api.html>
Especially the section on programming idioms should be critisized...

Then, the kinematic chain and motion documents got a good treatment:
  <http://www.orocos.org/documentation/kindyn-doc.html>
  <http://www.orocos.org/documentation/motion-api.html>
These contain an "almost final" API suggestion, which I will force to
become final if no decent discussion follows :-)

Finally, the documents on building a simple application
  <http://www.orocos.org/documentation/applications-doc.html>
got some updates, but not enough...

So, I will not be able to react to criticism in the next ten days or so,
so give all these things a good thought, and use them to remove the
"forks" that currently exist in the orocos code!

PS Some documents need time till midnight to get updated on the webpage...

Herman

-- 
   K.U.Leuven, Mechanical Engineering, Robotics Research Group
<http://people.mech.kuleuven.ac.be/~bruyninc> Tel: +32 16 322480