[liblouis-liblouisxml] Re: Changes and notes on software QA

On 22/09/2008 11:36 PM, John J. Boyer wrote:

As the principal maintainer of liblouis and liblouisxml I really
appreciate the patches from James Teh and the fact that they were sent
to the  list. If others have patches, I would appreciate it if they
would do the same. It seems that some patches may have been made to the
Google site without notice to anyone.
There aren't any patches that haven't been submitted upstream with the exception of the automated unit tests. Also, it is based on Eitan's autotools changes, rather than those introduced in 1.3.8.
The idea of the Google Code project was to provide version control and bug/issue tracking facilities for liblouis. It was not intended to be a competitor project or fork, but rather, it was hoped that it might be used in officially maintaining the project once you had acquainted yourself with version control and issue tracking.
Note that I have been maintaining the svn repository at the Google Code project for the last few weeks. It has been very useful to have version control when testing my patches. 


I'm thinking of moving to a
different hosting provider. The system used by NVDA sems to be very good
at allowing patches and keeping everyone informed of them and of issues
that need attention. I hope James Teh will help me get acquainted with
the NVDA system.
The NVDA system is very similar to that which is already available on the Google Code project. We use svn for version control (the same system used at Google Code), although we're slowly moving towards bzr and already use it for some things. We use Trac for our web resources; wiki, issue tracker, etc. The core developers have access to commit to svn, although people can now create their own bzr branches and submit them for integration if they wish. People can also open a ticket on Trac containing a patch. I generally prefer this rather than having patches sent to the list. Similarly, we encourage people to submit issues to Trac rather than to the list. This allows for greater organisation and ensures that issues and patches aren't lost. 


I'll be integrating the last patch from James into the latest liblouis.
Caution is needed because the place that should be patched is not
necessarily what it seems to be. For example, in the case of the
repeated opcode removing things from a spot indicated by the cursor
position when the compbrlAtCursor bit is set, the appropriate patch is
to not execute repeated, since it is inappropriate in this case.
Sorry about that. I realised this after I submitted my very first patch, but could never quite find the spot to place it. Note that the second version of my patch is probably still necessary. Otherwise, the outPos array will be incorrect, containing all 0s for the repeated text.
My most recent patch relating to out length being larger than in length should be fine as is, I hope. 


I have removed the link to the Google site from the
www.jjb-software.com downloads page, because it is out of date.
It is pretty much in sync with your most recent changes; it is now at 1.3.9, excepting the differences noted in my first paragraph. If you wanted to move to a system similar to that used by the NVDA project, Google Code does provide most of what you need.
What shortcomings do you find in the Google Code system? Moving to a different system is fine, but I am having difficulty understanding your reasons, given your ultimate goal. 


www.jjb-software.com is the official home page for both liblouis and
liblouisxml. The new site will contain a link to it.
The idea here is to integrate with your project management facilities, rather than maintain them separately. For example, releases should ideally be made based on the code in your version control system. It is of course fine to have a separate home page from your project management facilities, but they would ideally be used in tandam. The NVDA project has taken this to a greater extent, as we have integrated our home page into the Trac as well, but this isn't necessary, nor suitable, for many projects.
I would be happy to provide any further information or assistance required regarding project management and QA. 

Jamie

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