Add a first roadmap

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -3,4 +3,5 @@
 The repo2docker developer documentation can be found on these pages:
 
 * [Contributing to repo2docker](https://repo2docker.readthedocs.io/en/latest/contributing/contributing.html)
+* [Our roadmap](https://repo2docker.readthedocs.io/en/latest/contributing/roadmap.html)
 * [Common developer tasks and how-tos](https://repo2docker.readthedocs.io/en/latest/contributing/tasks.html)

README.md

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 the configuration files found in the repository.
 
 See the [repo2docker documentation](http://repo2docker.readthedocs.io)
-for more information.
+for more information on using repo2docker.
 
 See the [contributing guide](CONTRIBUTING.md) for information on contributing to
 repo2docker.

docs/source/contributing/roadmap.md

@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+# The repo2docker roadmap
+
+This roadmap collects "next steps" for the project. The goal is to
+communicate where the current priorities are and where the project is heading.
+It is not a list aimed at limiting contributions to what is listed here. If
+something is not listed here please do bring it up in a new issue or start
+work on it.
+
+Each "next step" should fit into one of the following three categories:
+
+* **now**, concrete/actionable step that is ready for someone to start work on.
+These might be items that have a link to an issue or more abstract like
+"decrease typos and dead links in the documentation"
+* **soon**, less concrete/actionable step that is going to happen soon,
+discussions around the topic are coming close to an end at which point it can
+move into the "now" category
+* **later**, abstract ideas or tasks, need a lot of discussion or
+experimentation to shape the idea so that it can be discussed. Should also
+contain concrete/actionable steps that have been postponed on purpose
+(these are steps that could be in "now" but the decision was taken to work on
+them later)
+
+The roadmap will get updated as time passes (next review by 1st December).
+This means this list should not be exhaustive, it should only represent
+the "top of the stack" of ideas. It should
+not function as a wish list, collection of feature requests or todo list.
+For those please create a
+[new issue](https://github.com/jupyter/repo2docker/issues/new).
+
+The roadmap should give the reader an idea of what is happening next, what needs
+input and discussion before it can happen and what has been postponed.
+
+
+## Guiding thought for the next months
+Repo2docker is a dependable tool used by humans that reduces the complexity of creating the environment in which a piece of software can be executed.
+
+
+## Now
+* reduce documentation typos and syntax errors
+* add Julia Manifest support (https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/stdlib/Pkg/index.html)
+* increase test coverage (see https://codecov.io/gh/jupyter/repo2docker/tree/master/repo2docker for low coverage files)
+* reduce execution time of tests
+* make a new release once Pipfile and nix support have been merged
+
+## Soon
+* create the contributor highway, define the route from newcomer to project lead
+* add support for using ZIP files as the repo (`repo2docker https://example.com/an-archive.zip`) this will give us access to several archives (like Zenodo) that expose things as ZIP files.
+* add support for Zenodo (`repo2docker 10.5281/zenodo.1476680`) so Zenodo software archives can be used as the source in addition to a git repository
+* tooling to make it easier to produce good `requirements.txt`, `environment.yml`, etc files. They should help users create versions of these files that have a high chance of still working in a few months
+* support for running with GPU acceleration
+
+## Later
+* repo2docker in repo2docker, to reproduce an environment users need to specify the repository and the version of repo2docker to use. Add support for repo2docker inspecting a repo and then starting a different version of itself to build the image
+* support execution on a remote host (with more resources than available locally) via the command-line

docs/source/index.rst

@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ Please report `Bugs <https://github.com/jupyter/repo2docker/issues>`_,
    :caption: Contribute to repo2docker
 
    contributing/contributing
+   contributing/roadmap
    architecture
    design
    contributing/tasks