Create alternative to std_msgs/Float64MultiArray in ForwardCommandController & family

[bmagyar]

Problem:

std_msgs/Float64MultiArray is deprecated.

# This was originally provided as an example message.
# It is deprecated as of Foxy
# It is recommended to create your own semantically meaningful message.
# However if you would like to continue using this please use the equivalent in example_msgs.

# Please look at the MultiArrayLayout message definition for
# documentation on all multiarrays.

MultiArrayLayout  layout        # specification of data layout
float64[]         data          # array of data

https://github.com/ros2/common_interfaces/blob/foxy/std_msgs/msg/Float64MultiArray.msg

Proposal:

Create (an) alternative in control_msgs. This could be a set of messages with a single joint interface type, one supporting multiples, or one message that has a field for the joint interface type and one that is fully dynamic --- (dynamic joint states??).

[gavanderhoorn]

std_msgs/Float64MultiArray is deprecated.

yeah, this really should have been given some more attention.

See SOSS: a whole new approach to your ROS 1-ROS 2 bridge! where this was casually dropped in an off-topic discussion. "It's in the release notes, we can't do anything more" (which is true, it's mentioned in the notes, but I doubt many people have seen those).

[bmagyar]

Agreed. I don't think I've ever read the release notes of a ros distro 😓

[destogl]

Yeah, I also had no idea, and although I looked at this message a few times, I didn't read its header. Actually, a ROS newcomer I was helping pointed me into this...

This should be a massive topic on ROS discourse...

[gavanderhoorn]

Feel free to bring it up again.

I've directly asked for an announcement. The response was:

It's in the release notes, we can't do anything more

from here.

[ijnek]

This issue has been mentioned in a Discourse Post

[RhysMcK]

Any update on this?

[bmagyar]

Well it's deprecated but still around... If you want to introduce something for this yourself you are welcome to submit a PR to control_msgs

[github-actions]

This issue is being labeled as stale because it has been open 45 days with no activity. It will be automatically closed after another 45 days without follow-ups.