Hi,
One of the topics here on mailinglist, and in last weeks IRC session
(yes, minutes follow!) was the testing/release scheduling.
-------------- 1. Platform management ----------
Proposal is to assign small teams now to do the 'platform management',
especially in assisting with testing builds, makefiles/scons/mscv, and
do releases.
The roles in such teams can be sorted out later, below you find what I
think is possible:
Windows team:
- Simon C: MSVC6 / installer
- Nathan L: MSVC7 / Scons
- Martin P: Cygwin
- Chris B: beta tests, testing builds
Linux team:
- Michel S: Scons / release builds
- Brecht v L: testing builds
- Juan P M: beta tests
- (I think we can use another coder here for platform issues...)
OSX team:
- Jean Luc P: 10.3, Scons, release builds
- Ton R: 10.2, makefiles, release builds
- (Looking for an OSX artist for beta tests)
Irix now is only by Chris W... Solaris by Kent M, FreeBSD by Hans L,
who also still does makefile support. For Irix to remain a viable
Blender platform we need help!
------------- 2. Regression suite ----------------
Main purpose of regression files:
- quick tests for fitness of a binary
- reference files for testers (users) to base bug reports on
Proposal is to expand the current 'suite' with testing samples
created/maintained by everyone who's working on a specific part in
Blender, organized by the 'module owners'.
To keep the test manageable, we can provide separate downloads for it,
per module.
The 'official' test suite then should be have a very well balanced set
of tests; which is possible to do in very short time (less than 15
minutes), this because long tests will just not be done!
I will cleanup the current set, and move most of the render files to a
separate 'rendermodule test' download. Inside of the files, I'll pack
the images too, as reference.
What I also like to see is someone gathering a 'basic UI test', with
themes, menu actions, buttons, pulldowns, area splitting, etc.
It is also relevant to promote this prominent on our site, so everyone
can load and help testing.
---------- 3. Release scenario ---------------------
Looking at how we work now, I can see a couple of phases which we could
formalize more. I have a suggestion for it, based on DefCon alert as
USA uses. :-)
B-Con 1: Relaxed, after release, gather energy and ideas
B-Con 2: Release targets and projects defined, release date might be
unknown though
B-Con 3: Release scheduled, CVS frozen except for commits in approved
projects,
make testing builds
B-Con 4: CVS frozen, test builds are on release level, commits only
possible on test results
B-Con 5: Release, webpages up, slashdot attack! Upgrade needed?
Naming is of course just an idea. But what could help really well is
clearly posting this on our site for everyone. So users interested to
help out know what's expected.
When we go for a release to (level 3) we can define how much time is
needed for it. I still think one or two weeks for '3' and one week for
'4' can work well, provided the tests go not too bad. It's important to
have the 'frozen cvs' period as short as possible.
----------- 4. Installation issues -----------------
http://download.blender.org/release/install.html
I would still love someone going over all the details we have now, and
fix this diagram to perfectly match what we want for 2.34.
Before going into long debates on what's required or not, please remind
that we don't so much need a 'desired' system, but a system that's easy
and simple to maintain cross platform.
My preference still is for *minimum* install, with optional choices for
(in docs or scripts):
- installing desktop icons and filetype assignments
- installing default scripts/modules in your home dir or system
If possible, for files that hardly ever change (like the bfont.ttf) we
could just choose to compile it in, as for .b.blend, .Bfont, splash,
etc.
-Ton-
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--
Ton Roosendaal Blender Foundation ton@blender.org
http://www.blender.org