[MTOS-dev] RSS Support

[Jay Allen]

Hi Bud,

Have you ever looked at or checked out any of the dev branches from  
code.sixapart.com?  I ask because I wonder if you've ever looked in  
the t/ directory that can only be found in the development repo and is  
not shipped with the app.

	http://code.sixapart.com/trac/movabletype/browser/branches/release-37/t

If you haven't seen that, that is the actively developed[1] and  
comprehensive test suite that the team uses constantly to make sure  
that their development is on target.  While I won't try to convince  
you that it's completely comprehensive (it's not but no test suite is  
if the app is in motion) or that the core team spends enough time  
making sure that every possible interaction with the software has a  
test case (they don't), but I will say that it's an impressive effort  
that has been going on for a long while and will continue in its  
progress and improvement.

I would be interested in hearing more from you about this because, as  
you are probably aware, this isn't (or shouldn't be) only the concern  
of the core MT team.  At some point hopefully in the very near future,  
this will be a critical concern of EVERY MTOS developer because as the  
number of simultaneously active developers increases on any platform  
the test suite becomes increasingly more important because it does  
what no human possibly can: To efficiently and definitively tell the  
group when they've made a wrong turn and when they are back on course.

--
Jay Allen
Endevver Consulting
415-200-6985

[1] - http://code.sixapart.com/trac/movabletype/log/branches/release-37/t?action=follow_copy&rev=2189&stop_rev=&mode=follow_copy


On May 2, 2008, at 6:39 AM, Bud Gibson wrote:
> I think it's going to take some time to get an MT that is less prone  
> to breakage on upgrade.  One thing that should really help is the  
> move to test driven development.  I would think that could really  
> help with maintaining the api.  In some sense, the test suite would  
> define the api, and nothing would make it into release that broke  
> the tests.
>
> I think a comprehensive test suite is some time away, hence my sense  
> that stability will take some time.
>
> Bud
>
> On Fri, May 2, 2008 at 8:47 AM, Jay Allen <jay at endevver.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 2:37 PM, Bud Gibson <fpgibson at gmail.com>  
> wrote:
> >
> >  Let me speak to the issue of why I am not a plugin fan. Simply  
> stated, they
> > are a maintenance headache. They're out of the core and they break  
> on
> > upgrade. Byrne even noted this in a leaked email last August. I'm  
> just now
> > diving into MT4.1 for a site upgrade, installing the recaptcha  
> plug-in, and
> > thinking OMG, will this work when the MT4.1.5 upgrade surfaces?
>
> Luckily, much of that pain should be abating and eventually disappear
> now that us developers have full access to the source code after every
> single change to it by the core developers.  It used to be that
> developers only had a few weeks (if that) to not only learn all of the
> new front-end and API features but to quickly fix their plugins.  This
> was especially harmful for:
>
>    * The most prolific plugin writers (e.g. Arvind) who had many
> plugins to update,
>    * "One hit wonder" developers who wrote a single plugin and then
> drifted away from the community far enough to either not know or not
> care that there was a new MT version out that required updates to
> their plugin
>    * Or the worst case, plugin developers who fit into **both**
> categories by being extremely prolific in the MT 2.x and early 3.x
> days before completely dropping off the face of the Earth.  I won't
> name names because you probably know a few of these.
>
> So, it's now time to realize that your old biases, though probably
> well-founded, are now quite solidly out of date.  This is the
> beginning of the better times we've all been waiting for for so long.
>
> --
> Jay Allen
> Endevver Consulting
> 415-200-6985
>
>
>
> -- 
> Bud Gibson
> cell: 734-657-4800
> web: http://michiganinnovators.org
> Now a certified AdWords Professional