GNUCash Quality (was Re: 1.8.2 Release candidate)

[Chris Lyttle]

On Wed, 2003-03-05 at 10:03, Kevin Benton wrote:
> 
> 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"
> 

You entirely missed the point of what I was saying. Never mind though, I
can see now that mailing a proposal to the list for people to comment on
the release process, then implementing it after next to nobody replied
was a bad idea.
http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-devel/2003-February/008537.html

As it seems you were just plain confused by the changes in the release
process, I'll go back to what I was doing before and just doing a 1.8.x
release as its needed. Packagers that have problems with the release
will need to wait for the next release to have them fixed.

> 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?
> 

To be honest here Kevin, I'd _love_ more help, both in QA for releases
and in docs. No one has actually stood up yet to volunteer though. I
don't think we need a separate list, the devel list should be fine, but
people actually willing to do the work and not just stand and criticize
from the sidelines are definitely needed. There is lots of work (that
isn't programming) that could be done and a definite shortage of people
to do it.

Chris

PS As you may be able to tell, I have next to no clue how to get people
interested in helping (ie 'recruiting').
-- 
RedHat Certified Engineer #807302549405490.
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