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# Frequently Asked Questions

## General

#### Do I need to use Origen to use this?

No. This library complements the Origen eco-system but it has no dependencies on it.
It can be used with a test program and patterns that originate from any tool
chain.

#### Do I need to pay for it?

No. It is licensed under the [MIT License](https://tldrlegal.com/license/mit-license) which means
that you can do whatever you like with it.

#### Is it production worthy?

Sort of. We are using it in some minor production scenarios within NXP, however it is still
in the very early stages of development and the APIs are subject to change until we reach version 1.

#### Will it break my test program when I upgrade to a new version of the library?

No. This project will follow the [semantic versioning](http://semver.org/) standard
which means that we must be fully backwards-compatible between major version releases, which
should not happen very often (maybe every few years).

However, until we hit major version 1, some minor instability is allowed while we
get the foundational architecture and APIs worked out.
Having said that, this library will soon be qualified in some production test programs within NXP
and at that point any API breakages will be as painful for us as it would be for anyone else,
so major flux is not expected.

Of course bugs can and do happen, and we would recommend that you follow normal checkout
procedures to qualify your test program when updating the Origen library.

#### Can I contribute?

Yes! NXP is releasing this to the industry with the hope that we can work together to create
common infrastructure that goes beyond the foundation provided by the ATE vendors.

Please [contact us](http://origen-sdk.org/origen/community/) if you need help to get started.


#### Is it supported by the ATE vendors?

No. Although we hope in time that the vendor's apps engineers will become active
contributors to this library and will start to use it in their own applications.

#### Is it supported by NXP?

Not officially. It is open source and comes with no guarantees.

#### So who does support it then?

Right now the Origen core team (comprising engineers from NXP and AMD)
are the primary
maintainers and we will consider feature requests and address bug reports that are submitted by users
of the library.

However anyone is more then welcome to contribute bug fixes, feature additions,
documentation, etc. and ultimately we hope to see a self-sustaining community grow around
this project.

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