haskelldb-users

[Haskelldb-users] Release

[Henning <h.g...@tu...>]

Hi,

as a volunteer worker for the Gentoo Linux Haskell Team, I'd like to ask
you about the chances for a release of HaskellDB. As your project
includes very interesting methods for database access, I'd be glad if
your developments could be shared with the Gentoo Community.
As it states "your help is very welcome" on your homepage, I'd like to
know, what kind of help you're thinking of to get a release done.

Re: [Haskelldb-users] Release

[Bjorn B. <bri...@cs...>]

On Jul 17, 2006, at 12:15 PM, Henning G=FCnther wrote:

> Hi,
>
> as a volunteer worker for the Gentoo Linux Haskell Team, I'd like =20
> to ask
> you about the chances for a release of HaskellDB. As your project
> includes very interesting methods for database access, I'd be glad if
> your developments could be shared with the Gentoo Community.
> As it states "your help is very welcome" on your homepage, I'd like to
> know, what kind of help you're thinking of to get a release done.

I think that some sort of test suite would be very nice to have =20
before a release, but that might just be my personal opinion. There =20
are also open bugs [1] and missing features [2], but those have been =20
around for a long time, and we still have some users. I guess I don't =20=

really see any reason why there couldn't be a 0.10 release at this =20
point. I'll see what I can do.

/Bj=F6rn

[1] http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=3D101095&atid=3D629040

[2] http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=3D101095&atid=3D629043

Re: [Haskelldb-users] Release

[Matthias R. <mat...@so...>]

Bjorn Bringert <bri...@cs...> writes:

> I think that some sort of test suite would be very nice to have  
> before a release, but that might just be my personal opinion.

IMHO the test suite is *essential*. HaskellDB is quite a complex library
and changes in one area can have far-reaching and non-obvious
consequences. In absence of a large user base, a reasonably
comprehensive test suite is crucial for tracking down bugs. I was
horrified when I found out that the current test suite had
bit-rotted. It means that all recent changes are highly suspect and will
have most likely broken something somewhere.

Bjorn, do you know when the test suite was last run successfully? Then
we could take a look what changes were introduced since then and add
test cases for those. Ideally we'd also do coverage testing to determine
what other tests we should add to get a reasonably good coverage of the
library.

One added complication is that the test suite should be run against a
variety of db backends, in order to identify db-specific code that has
crept into the generic code base, and bugs in the db-specific code
itself.


Matthias.

Re: [Haskelldb-users] Release

[Bjorn B. <bri...@cs...>]

On Jul 17, 2006, at 1:14 PM, Matthias Radestock wrote:

> Bjorn Bringert <bri...@cs...> writes:
>
>> I think that some sort of test suite would be very nice to have
>> before a release, but that might just be my personal opinion.
>
> IMHO the test suite is *essential*. HaskellDB is quite a complex =20
> library
> and changes in one area can have far-reaching and non-obvious
> consequences. In absence of a large user base, a reasonably
> comprehensive test suite is crucial for tracking down bugs. I was
> horrified when I found out that the current test suite had
> bit-rotted. It means that all recent changes are highly suspect and =20=

> will
> have most likely broken something somewhere.
>
> Bjorn, do you know when the test suite was last run successfully? Then
> we could take a look what changes were introduced since then and add
> test cases for those. Ideally we'd also do coverage testing to =20
> determine
> what other tests we should add to get a reasonably good coverage of =20=

> the
> library.
>
> One added complication is that the test suite should be run against a
> variety of db backends, in order to identify db-specific code that has
> crept into the generic code base, and bugs in the db-specific code
> itself.

I don't think that it would be too hard to get the current tests =20
running again, but they were never that good:

- There has never been a time when all of them worked on all back-=20
ends, because of back-end incompatibilities.
- The coverage is probably quite poor.
- Many of them don't check their outputs, they mostly just test that =20
HaskellDB doesn't generate bad SQL or crash in some other way.

Some ideas for getting a good test suite together:

- Design a test database and write DBInfo for it.

- Use DynConnect for database connections. Extend DynConnect to =20
support all driver (missing HDBC drivers at the moment)

- Have some way for the user to provide connection parameters to all =20
the database back-ends to test with.

- Use HUnit, and maybe even QuickCheck.

- Maybe the FlatDB [1] backend could be used as a reference. It's a =20
simple database back-end whose query language is HaskellDB's internal =20=

PrimQuery type.


One of the reasons that this hasn't been done yet is that the back-=20
end incompatibility problem is so frustrating. But a test suite would =20=

be a good way to identify the things that need to be taken care of by =20=

any back-end specific SQL generation.

I can try to get a test framework together. Are there any volunteers =20
who would like to contribute test DB layout, data, unit tests or =20
QuickCheck properties?

/Bj=F6rn

[1] http://www.cs.chalmers.se/~bringert/darcs/haskelldb-flat/

Re: [Haskelldb-users] Release

[Shae M. E. <sh...@Sc...>]

Bjorn Bringert <bri...@cs...> writes:

> - Maybe the FlatDB [1] backend could be used as a reference. It's a simple
> database back-end whose query language is HaskellDB's internal PrimQuery
> type.

> I can try to get a test framework together. Are there any volunteers who
> would like to contribute test DB layout, data, unit tests or QuickCheck
> properties?

I'd happily contribute QuickCheck properties. I'm in favor of a FlatDB backend
for the reference implementation, it'll be easy to test.
-- 
I've tried to teach people autodidactism,                | ScannedInAvian.com
but it seems they always have to learn it for themselves.| Shae Matijs Erisson

Re: [Haskelldb-users] Release

[Bjorn B. <bri...@cs...>]

On Jul 17, 2006, at 1:37 PM, Bjorn Bringert wrote:

> On Jul 17, 2006, at 1:14 PM, Matthias Radestock wrote:
>
>> Bjorn Bringert <bri...@cs...> writes:
>>
>>> I think that some sort of test suite would be very nice to have
>>> before a release, but that might just be my personal opinion.
>>
>> IMHO the test suite is *essential*. HaskellDB is quite a complex
>> library
>> and changes in one area can have far-reaching and non-obvious
>> consequences. In absence of a large user base, a reasonably
>> comprehensive test suite is crucial for tracking down bugs. I was
>> horrified when I found out that the current test suite had
>> bit-rotted. It means that all recent changes are highly suspect and
>> will
>> have most likely broken something somewhere.
>>
>> Bjorn, do you know when the test suite was last run successfully? =20
>> Then
>> we could take a look what changes were introduced since then and add
>> test cases for those. Ideally we'd also do coverage testing to
>> determine
>> what other tests we should add to get a reasonably good coverage of
>> the
>> library.
>>
>> One added complication is that the test suite should be run against a
>> variety of db backends, in order to identify db-specific code that =20=

>> has
>> crept into the generic code base, and bugs in the db-specific code
>> itself.
>
> I don't think that it would be too hard to get the current tests
> running again, but they were never that good:
>
> - There has never been a time when all of them worked on all back-
> ends, because of back-end incompatibilities.
> - The coverage is probably quite poor.
> - Many of them don't check their outputs, they mostly just test that
> HaskellDB doesn't generate bad SQL or crash in some other way.
>
> Some ideas for getting a good test suite together:
>
> - Design a test database and write DBInfo for it.
>
> - Use DynConnect for database connections. Extend DynConnect to
> support all driver (missing HDBC drivers at the moment)
>
> - Have some way for the user to provide connection parameters to all
> the database back-ends to test with.
>
> - Use HUnit, and maybe even QuickCheck.
>
> - Maybe the FlatDB [1] backend could be used as a reference. It's a
> simple database back-end whose query language is HaskellDB's internal
> PrimQuery type.
>
>
> One of the reasons that this hasn't been done yet is that the back-
> end incompatibility problem is so frustrating. But a test suite would
> be a good way to identify the things that need to be taken care of by
> any back-end specific SQL generation.
>
> I can try to get a test framework together. Are there any volunteers
> who would like to contribute test DB layout, data, unit tests or
> QuickCheck properties?
>
> /Bj=F6rn
>
> [1] http://www.cs.chalmers.se/~bringert/darcs/haskelldb-flat/

I've cleaned up the repo a bit, and added a unit test framework and =20
some unit tests. I have bumped the version number to 0.10, to =20
distinguish it from the released 0.9.

To run the current tests:

$ cd make

Edit test.config and set parameters for whatever database back-ends =20
you have available.

$ make

If you want to run tests for just one of the back-ends in test.config =20=

(for example "HSQL PostgreSQL"):

$ make tests

$ ./tests "HSQL PostgreSQL"

The current tests are very simple, but a large number of them fail on =20=

the some of the back-ends. There even seems to be one in the HDBC =20
back-end which crashes the test framework occasionally.

You are all welcome to contribute more unit tests. Very little of the =20=

API is currently covered. There should also be test for known bugs, =20
see http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=3D101095&atid=3D629040

I haven't gotten around to adding support for QuickCheck properties yet.


/Bj=F6rn=