20 messages in org.gnome.desktop-devel-listRe: GNOME's testing strategy for GUIs
FromSent OnAttachments
Willie WalkerFeb 14, 2008 10:42 am 
Nickolay V. ShmyrevFeb 14, 2008 10:53 am 
Brad TaylorFeb 14, 2008 11:08 am 
John StowersFeb 14, 2008 1:18 pm 
Brad TaylorFeb 14, 2008 1:25 pm 
John StowersFeb 14, 2008 1:34 pm 
David BolterFeb 14, 2008 1:56 pm 
David BolterFeb 14, 2008 1:58 pm 
Nagappan AFeb 14, 2008 9:48 pm 
Vincent UntzFeb 15, 2008 6:09 am 
Emmanuel FleuryFeb 15, 2008 6:33 am 
Nagappan AFeb 15, 2008 7:03 am 
Willie WalkerFeb 15, 2008 8:40 am 
David BolterFeb 16, 2008 9:41 am 
Willie WalkerFeb 16, 2008 1:50 pm 
Luis VillaFeb 16, 2008 2:00 pm 
Luis VillaFeb 17, 2008 5:20 am 
APIFeb 20, 2008 8:12 am 
Qi-Bo Paul MeiFeb 20, 2008 2:00 pm.Other
Nagappan AFeb 22, 2008 9:51 am 
Actions with this message:
Paste this link in email or IM:
Paste this link in email or IM:
Atom feed for this thread
Paste this URL into your reader:
Subject:Re: GNOME's testing strategy for GUIsActions...
From:Luis Villa (lu@tieguy.org)
Date:Feb 16, 2008 2:00:11 pm
List:org.gnome.desktop-devel-list

On Feb 16, 2008 4:50 PM, Willie Walker <Will@sun.com> wrote:

I'd like to see documentation on 'GNOME recommended automated testing' for all the kinds of projects we see in GNOME (including for the various languages). I think this thread is a great way to try and get community consensus and to collect information on what various projects use. I suspect a lot of projects use none or very little (sadly, including GOK).

IMHO this needs to change.

Agreed. We tried to get some momentum back at GNOME Boston 2006 (http://live.gnome.org/TestingUsingAtSpi), but we never really gained traction. It may that the community wasn't ready then, but it might be ready now.

As I suggested to Willie earlier in private mail, I think the key is getting something actually used. Get someone to run whatever tests there are on a regular, automated basis, and file bugs as a result. It will be imperfect (very imperfect to start with, owing to issues with the tools, lack of test coverage, etc.) but it will be better than nothing. That will:

* create general developer awareness * encourage people to write tests, because they will know that the tests will be executed/used * encourage developers of the test harnesses to improve based on real-world feedback, which is obviously pretty lacking right now (though there appear to be some hints that it is happening)

The rest (documentation, etc.) falls out of actually using it, IMHO.

And by the way, I'm glad this discussion is happening- it is a *hugely* critical issue, I believe, and if the various distros/OSes collaborated to make this happen, would pay off at at least that 1:100 ratio mentioned earlier in terms of improved quality and robustness.

Luis