Chris, I do agree that a simple enumeration of the changes between 1.8.1 and 1.8.2-rc1 would be relatively simple and not too much of a hardship. You need to compile the list anyways; might as well do it incrementally.
-derek Kevin Benton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Let's look at it this way... > > Joe Creator: Would you mind testing my software for me? > Guinea Pig: What is it you want me to test? > Joe Creator: Download the software and see for yourself. > Guinea Pig: I'm a busy guy. I don't have a lot of time to fix problems > if what you're giving me impacts me very negatively. What changes did > you make? > Joe Creator: Look, either download the software and test it or just say > no. > Guinea Pig: Of course, if I knew what I was getting into, I might be > willing to test your software, but since you put it that way, no. > > Sorry Chris, I disagree. Any time I make changes to something where I > work and ask someone to test my changes, its only respectful that I > include what I'm asking them to test before they start testing rather > than making them go download the software and look for the list of > changes. Then, they can make the determination of whether or not to > become a guinea pig or not without the time spent downloading. If > nothing else, posting a link to the changelog (by itself) would be nicer > than "you should know enough about building from source to find the > changelog" > > Think about it this way - we are all busy people, yourself included, I'm > sure. If you want to get my help (as another busy person), making it > easier for me to know what I'm "signing up for" helps me understand just > how much risk I'll be taking and helps make sure all your testers see > what they should be testing. I know I may be "preaching to the choir" > here, but hey, we're all volunteers, right? :) > > <soap box mode> > What am I trying to do? GNUCash has the potential to win an awful lot > of Quicken users if we keep software quality up. Intuit also releases > intermediate updates between its major versions (just like we're > proposing with 1.8.2). What would happen with Quicken if Intuit didn't > do a good job of pre-testing its intermediate releases with a limited > set of "real-world" customers? How about the same with MS Money? At a > company I worked for, they had a problem with releasing software far too > often and not giving their QA team enough time and information to > adequately test the software prior to release. They also didn't get > enough testers (people in the company outside the QA dept.) to help them > test the software, often because testers didn't know what to look for > because they didn't know what had changed. It was killing my team's > ability to manage the production environment properly because the > product itself was broken more often than not. I wound up being a part > of the team that required engineering to publish release notes to the > wider audience. What did that do for us? It helped us get more testers > by helping them know what they were getting into. Net result - improved > testing yielding improved software quality yielding improved customer > satisfaction. > </soap box mode> > > I would love to see GNUCash be able to compete with Quicken and Money. > We're getting closer to that point. The challenge is setting it as a > goal, then doing what it takes to get us there. One of the "habits" > we'll need to develop to be truly competitive with the commercial > packages is to make sure our QA process is very tight for all our > releases, something the commercial software developers know quite well. > We all know this is a -devel mailing list. Let's make sure the -devel > doesn't ignore the needs of the -tester or the -users :) > > I don't know if I have the time to do this, or if anyone is already > steering it, but heck, if you guys want me to be a leader on the QA > front, I'm willing to consider it. I don't want to step on any toes or > get anyone's feelings hurt (Chris - read that to say I'm not trying to > take your job). I'm not saying we're doing a bad job, but like anyone, > I do think we can do better by changing a habit or two here or there and > being more process sensitive. Frankly, I don't know if I want the job, > but hey, GNUCash is a critical part of Linux being able to kill M$'s > desktop monopoly. I'd like to see them face some real competition and > if it comes from the OpenSource world, fantastic. :) > > What do you guys think about the whole thing? Should we start a > gnucash-tester list? If we were to start a gnucash-tester mailing list, > how would it help and what would the objectives be? If we did start the > list, what recruiting process would we use? How would we best use the > list to the benefit of all? What part would the -tester list play in > the quality assurance process? When should the -tester group be > engaged? Should the -tester group be responsible for determining > "releasability" status? Am I totally off-base? > > On Tue, 2003-03-04 at 19:21, Chris Lyttle wrote: > > > On Tue, 2003-03-04 at 12:49, Kevin Benton wrote: > > > How about posting the changes (1.8.1 vs 1.8.2) here so we all know what > > > to look for before giving our thumbs up or down? > > > > > > Kevin Benton > > > > > > On Tue, 2003-03-04 at 12:56, James A. Treacy wrote: > > > > > > > On Mon, Mar 03, 2003 at 09:29:03PM -0800, Chris Lyttle wrote: > > > > > > > > > > I've put a release candidate in > > > > > http://www.gnucash.org/pub/gnucash/sources/unstable/release-candidate/gnucash-1.8.1.5.tar.gz > > > > > > > > > > Packagers please try it out and feedback any problems. If this goes well > > > > > I'll release a tarball friday for you to package against for a sunday > > > > > release of 1.8.2. > > > > > > > > Compiled and ran on Debian unstable on the first try. > > > > > > > This is a candidate for packagers to test for the sunday release, not a > > general release. This is why there is no changelog posted. If you want > > to package for a specific distro/platform release then you should know > > enough about building from source to find the changelog as part of your > > process. The general release sunday will have details of the changes. > > > > Chris > > -- > Kevin Benton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > _______________________________________________ > gnucash-devel mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.gnucash.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel -- Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board (SIPB) URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/ PP-ASEL-IA N1NWH [EMAIL PROTECTED] PGP key available _______________________________________________ gnucash-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.gnucash.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
