From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "Avdi Grimm" Subject: Re: How you can help Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:42:42 -0400 Message-ID: References: <967CE7ED-05E9-4031-9F3B-CFB826511554@alexanderonline.org> <87ljwfbdga.fsf@kassiopeya.MSHEIMNETZ> <752DA813-1B66-4FD1-B28E-3C23176BA13D@alexanderonline.org> <87r6679t1t.fsf@kassiopeya.MSHEIMNETZ> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1Kt3Gq-0008EL-VF for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:42:49 -0400 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1Kt3Go-0008At-7p for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:42:48 -0400 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=48392 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Kt3Go-0008Ah-1P for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:42:46 -0400 Received: from rv-out-0708.google.com ([209.85.198.241]:59291) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1Kt3Gn-0003kK-Mg for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:42:46 -0400 Received: by rv-out-0708.google.com with SMTP id k29so491707rvb.6 for ; Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:42:42 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <87r6679t1t.fsf@kassiopeya.MSHEIMNETZ> Content-Disposition: inline List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: Sebastian Rose Cc: Ben Alexander , emacs-orgmode Org-Mode A few points, from someone with a decent amount of testing background: * As someone who has contributed to OS projects, the lack of a pre-existing set of regression tests in org-mode is actually *the* most significant blocker to my getting involved in org-mode development. I do all of my coding - both professional and personal - in the context of tests, and not having the existing framework means that before I can start working on new features I first need to spend time yak-shaving on testing infrastructure. * I think there's a lot of over-thinking going on here. Here's the test-first coding discipline in a nutshell: 1. Identify a problem/missing feature. 2. Write a test (possibly using a unit-testing framework to help) which will pass when the bug has been fixed or feature added. This can be as simple as calling a function and validating its return value. 3. Run the test. Verify it FAILS. 4. Write code to make the test PASS. 5. Refactor, if you introduced any code duplication in step 4. 6. Run all the tests, to make sure you didn't break anything else. 7. Commit. If someone would be so kind as to identify a small bug or feature, I would be happy to demonstrate this workflow in the form of code, time permitting. -- Avdi Home: http://avdi.org Developer Blog: http://avdi.org/devblog/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/avdi Journal: http://avdi.livejournal.com