Re: Adopt a platform today!

[Riccardo Mottola]

Hi,
> > Tier 1 platforms, where someone is running the tests and is willing to fix bugs.
> > Tier 2 platforms, where someone has run the test in the past and we think stuff 
> > still works, but no one is actively maintaining, and
> > Tier 3 platforms (everything else - may work, but you're on your own).
> >      
> I was particularly interested in the third point ... having people volunteer to 
> be the first contact and help deal with platform specific bug reports.
>
> Most of the core developers only have access to a few different platforms, and 
> in practice can really only do rapid debugging on a couple they use daily.  So 
> this is an area where people using unusual hardware or less common software 
> combinations can make a big difference.
>
>    
I somehow feel addressed here. As an excuse I might say that I do try to 
build and run GNUstep stuff on my platforms, but using the testsuite is 
surely a more ordered way to check a platform sanity.
There would be also an intermediate level between tier 1 and tier 2: 
tested and bugs actively reported, but not fixed directly by the 
submitter. Tier 1 is a lot to ask :)

Currently due to personal matters, I only have a bunch of my most used 
platforms available. The unusual hardware is tucked away temporarily. 
But I will try my best.

I think the test should try to be smart about "features". E.g. if a 
certain feature is not compiled in, its test should be skipped or makred 
as "Failed expected". No PNG support? having a failure in PNG loading is 
expected. The same could be done for objc-2, libICU, XML... That means 
test should configure themselves though, perhaps not easy

> We also need someone to coordinate this (ie maintain a website/wiki page 
> listing the degree of support on each platform and listing the contact email 
> addresses etc).
>    
Yes, this could be useful. I suppose also for packagers and users.
We run "standard" source stuff. If something doesn't run packaged, then 
most probably the problem lies in the package.

In any case, Richard, thanks for the big work: an easy to run testsuite 
will help testing before releases. Is it possible to "wrap it up" in 
tar.gz ? I have platforms where I don't have a full svn checkout, but I 
do test using the nightly tarballs.

Riccardo