[nycbug-talk] eurobsdcon

[Brown, James Jim]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: G.Rosamond [mailto:george at sddi.net]
> Sent: Sunday, May 23, 2004 10:31 PM
> To: Jan Schaumann
> Cc: NYC Bug List
> Subject: Re: [nycbug-talk] eurobsdcon
> 
> 
> 
> On May 23, 2004, at 10:25 PM, Jan Schaumann wrote:
> 
> > Dru <dlavigne6 at sympatico.ca> wrote:
> >
> >> -contributing documentation, tutorials, reviews
> >
> > This is one point that can't be stressed enough.  Documentation is
> > something that anybody can contribute to - even though 
> getting really
> > <snip>
> 

Documentation is important, but there is a more critical need, IMHO.

Open Source software needs reliable testing frameworks.  Most Open
Source projects of substance are large (> 50K lines of code) and
most do not have a reliable, rigorous testing framework. 
My perception is that Open Source testing consists mainly of just
getting as many people as possible to run the project code
and submit bug reports.  While helpful, this is spotty testing.


The Perl Test Harness is a step in the right direction.  
Test programs are written for specific features of a module
and compared against expected output.  These can be run by
anyone, on any hw/sw platform that runs Perl.

The BIND 9 test suite is another good example, although in this
case, it's not easy to set up and run.


Consider challenging the Open Source community to develop testing
frameworks for every project.  'make test' should perform a 
complete suite of tests for the project that can be reused
for every release.

My $0.02USD.

Best Regards,
Jim B.


Note:  The information contained in this message may be privileged and
confidential and protected from disclosure.  If the reader of this message
is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for
delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified
that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is
strictly prohibited.  If you have received this communication in error,
please notify us immediately by replying to the message and deleting it from
your computer. Thank you.  ThruPoint, Inc. 


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.nycbug.org/pipermail/talk/attachments/20040524/02930ac9/attachment.html