I know QA isn't quite the same thing as testing, but would there be the resources floating around to have something like a continuous integration server kicking around? It's a bit buzz-wordy, but knowing a few minutes after you've pushed something* that you haven't broken the build can be useful. More to the point, that kind of set-up is the first step towards automated regression testing.
Category A is a bunch of command-line tools, whose output should not - generally speaking - change when given the same input twice (please correct me if I'm wrong). It also ought to be fairly easy to script runs of them with known input. Each time someone comes up with a new idea for a unit test, often a simplified version of something which was observed breaking in the "real world", we come up with a simple script which runs the relevant tools on the relevant inputs and checks the output. The script itself only outputs success or failure. Run these scripts each build, as part of the continuous integration process, and you automatically know on a commit-by-commit basis that not only does the code build, but it works at least as well as it did before**. With any decent DCVS it should be fairly easy for people to avoid pushing half-finished work without necessarily grinding to a halt. I could go on and on about various kinds of workflow and branching strategies, but that's a topic for another day... Regards, Phil * Sorry, using git terminology here. Haven't used bazaar, but I use git /a lot/ both at home and at work. ** Within the bounds of the available tests, obviously. Not perfect but better than nothing. _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~coapp-developers Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~coapp-developers More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
