On Mar 6, 2006, at 9:33 AM, Tao Starbow wrote:
Skilled users could submit tests that expose the bug as part of the original issue submission. And submitting original tests could be a great way for new users to contribute.
My first full-time programming job was maintaining unit and regression tests for 1M+ C++ line code base with over 20 different types of software services for medical records. If something slipped through people could get the wrong diagnosis or the wrong medication. I agree, unit test are valuable. However, maintaining unit tests could be as difficult as building core itself initially. Maintaining unit tests attracts a different kind of personality type than people who are interested in adding new features. We need a way to appeal to the motivations of testers. I think coming up with a small number of tests maintained by a few people is the way to approach this. We just had a fun chat in #drupal about what the most basic tests for Drupal core should be. 1) Test checkboxes -apparently they were broken some 41 times in head 2) Changing Filter input to PHP type for security 3) Page edit 4) Bootstrap checking 5) Update.php checking I think a grand scheme to write hundreds of tests or force core contributors to write unit tests with their patches will fail. Worse it could delay emerging efforts for a small suite of maintained tests. If anyone is interested in maintaining at least one test over the 4.7 release cycle let's get together and see if we can provide a useful maintained suite that can be run against head to identify issues and provide core developers a toolset to improve the quality of their patches. Cheers, Kieran
-- Tao Starbow Web Architect, CITRIS