Re: [Tsheetx-developers] Testing and target releases

[David T. <tom...@us...>]

Peter
Just to take up one of the points you make - feature lists and versions:
 
We have used Mantis in the past, and I think it covers your wish very well. You can allocate any issue to a proposed version and manage the roadmap well. It may not be as "agile" as other tools, but I can live with that. And it demands a discipline from the developers => make sure you know on which issue you are working, and update it too.
 
The other thing is, is that it is open and transparent. Anyone who registers can see the development status. This, I believe, is crucial to open source development. Why do you not want to publicise what we are doing?
 
If you look through the Mantis database, there is at least one example where users have raised problems and pushed to get them resolved. How did we handle the pressure? Polite ignoring. We can handle the pressure. Everyone should accept that this is, as you say, an amateur effort, and if you need mission-critical professional support then TSNG is not the app for you. 
 
Saying that, I am a professional developer and I can send my contact details to anyone willing to pay my hourly rate :-) Mind you, if anyone needs help with 2.0, I'm not the man to hire - I haven't looked at the code in quite a while!
 
> Date: Tue, 10 May 2011 13:28:48 +1000
> From: pal...@gm...
> To: tsh...@li...
> Subject: [Tsheetx-developers] Testing and target releases
> 
> The PHP support issue suggests we consider a couple of other issues. 
> These issues are a) some form of testing b) some feature lists and versions.
> 
> If we are going to write and release software versions then some test 
> process and check-off process is needed.
> 
> We are all working away to change things, but it is about time I think 
> to set some goals which we can focus on. A set of goals also allows some 
> software features to be released. Otherwise I feel we will be coding 
> until next year. If we agree on some feature based goals, without target 
> dates, then that gives us a way forward. The reason I said no target 
> dates is we are all volunteers with our lives to lead, so working toward 
> date targets will be difficult.
> 
> So I suggest we compile a list of features we are working on, along with 
> their state of achievement. From that list we can aim to complete our 
> features and get them out there. I would suggest we keep our feature 
> list and release targets on the developer list only, and not publish it. 
> Then there is no pressure to get things released.
> 
> Here is a short paper discussing some of the issues in software release 
> related to SubVersion 1.5. 
> http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CDEQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fciteseerx.ist.psu.edu%2Fviewdoc%2Fdownload%3Fdoi%3D10.1.1.143.4757%26rep%3Drep1%26type%3Dpdf&ei=-azITeq1BoTsuAP-ncjcBQ&usg=AFQjCNFzQFzKlcwgp24ouyLd8wl3jAiA7w
> 
> For testing, we could use some open source web testing tools. However 
> these tools would require a fair bit of work to set up. Here is an 
> article on three of them: 
> http://www.infoworld.com/d/architecture/three-open-source-web-service-testing-tools-get-high-marks-995?page=0,0
> 
> And here are comments on even more tools: 
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/79733/best-automated-testing-tool-for-web-applications
> 
> Alternatively, we could create a simple one page list of tests that a 
> release needs to achieve before its release.
> 
> Peter
> 
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