From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: David Kastrup Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Need for a Emacs regression test suite Date: Sun, 09 Sep 2007 10:05:30 +0200 Message-ID: <85myvws1px.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1189326588 5413 80.91.229.12 (9 Sep 2007 08:29:48 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2007 08:29:48 +0000 (UTC) Cc: rms@gnu.org, "Stephen J. Turnbull" , emacs-devel@gnu.org To: dhruva Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Sep 09 18:29:34 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1IUPIE-0000pM-7T for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 09 Sep 2007 18:05:50 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1IUHnr-000405-G1 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 09 Sep 2007 04:05:59 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1IUHnn-0003xT-PD for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 09 Sep 2007 04:05:55 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1IUHnm-0003wE-3E for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 09 Sep 2007 04:05:55 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1IUHnl-0003w4-RL for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 09 Sep 2007 04:05:53 -0400 Original-Received: from mail-in-06.arcor-online.net ([151.189.21.46]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1IUHnh-0007rF-7C; Sun, 09 Sep 2007 04:05:49 -0400 Original-Received: from mail-in-13-z2.arcor-online.net (mail-in-13-z2.arcor-online.net [151.189.8.30]) by mail-in-06.arcor-online.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id E25C631FA3C; Sun, 9 Sep 2007 10:05:47 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from mail-in-05.arcor-online.net (mail-in-05.arcor-online.net [151.189.21.45]) by mail-in-13-z2.arcor-online.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id D01DA1B8E42; Sun, 9 Sep 2007 10:05:47 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from lola.goethe.zz (dslb-084-061-016-106.pools.arcor-ip.net [84.61.16.106]) by mail-in-05.arcor-online.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 57ADC1C3328; Sun, 9 Sep 2007 10:05:35 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: by lola.goethe.zz (Postfix, from userid 1002) id E3AA41CAD71D; Sun, 9 Sep 2007 10:05:31 +0200 (CEST) In-Reply-To: (dhruva's message of "Sun\, 9 Sep 2007 09\:49\:54 +0530") User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.1.50 (gnu/linux) X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.91.2/4205/Sun Sep 9 06:13:23 2007 on mail-in-05.arcor-online.net X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Detected-Kernel: Linux 2.4-2.6 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:78296 Archived-At: dhruva writes: > On 9/9/07, Richard Stallman wrote: >> The various changes getting into Emacs and number of things breaking >> sporadically, IMO we need to have a regression suite. A collection >> batch mode scripts and macros to test the GUI invocation. >> >> I don't see how that is possible, but if you know a way to do it, >> please do it. > > I will start looking into the XEmacs testing framework. Once I have > something working on my local box, I will get back. Let us delay the > legalities till we get the technicalities sorted out. Stephen has already outlined the parts of the legal issues he sees and just what kind of help he is willing to provide getting them solved (thanks for that!). I would suggest that you are careful not to invest too much Emacs-specific work that might be lost ultimately due to legal reasons, though this warning might appear somewhat premature at the moment. In any way, it would seem important to evaluate the testing framework and see how well it applies to Emacs and how useful it is, and for that, it certainly makes sense to write some tests and see how easy it is, and how useful the results. If it applies suitably well (and from Stephen's description that half of the tests get passed by Emacs this seems very much so), it is important that we get the legalities solved for the framework. That is really indispensible. Getting papers for the tests themselves could then be done on a case-by-case basis: it would not preclude us from writing our own tests or embedding those that are properly accounted for. It certainly seems like something we should pursue. -- David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum