No one is arguing that we shouldn’t add more tests.

Please let’s not make it seem like there’s a disagreement about that.

> On Apr 2, 2020, at 10:46 AM, Carlos Rovira <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Hi Alex,
> 
> first, many thanks for the detailed email. I'll comment on this later as I
> have more time.
> 
> For now, to add up a recent example on what Chris commented: If you all
> remember a week ago I was trying to use SVG Images in a blog example that
> was published 2 days ago. Nobody tried SVG Images before building with
> maven, I know that since maven was not properly configured and using that
> component from Maven was failing with an RTE. Probably we have more things
> not working the same way when build from Maven and Ant, and that's
> something that will need people using that code paths in test applications
> (or in their own apps) to see if things works properly.
> 
> I was recently introduced to "examples-integrationtest" by Chris, that I
> plan to use soon as I can. I think is a great idea, since you get a Firefox
> running test interface of the real use of some concrete royale code. I
> think passed until now unnoticed by all of us, and seems a powerful tool.
> There's already an example about FlexStore with some basic assertions.
> 
> Again, thanks, and will comment on the rest later
> 
> Carlos
> 
> 
> 
> 
> El jue., 2 abr. 2020 a las 9:20, Christofer Dutz (<[email protected]>)
> escribió:
> 
>> Hi Alex,
>> 
>> just a point you are bringing up: "Code coverage".
>> 
>> I strongly dislike the idea of "asjs" effectively being the test for the
>> compiler. The reasoning behind this is: yes you do get more code covered,
>> but only the happy-path (ideally) and even if things go wrong, the end
>> results aren't tested. Did add a module to asjs years ago
>> ("examples-integrationtest") that deployed the examples in a tomcat server
>> then opens a Firefox browser and clicks through 2 of the examples (I added
>> two dummy tests as an example, but seems no one touched this after me). I
>> did this because I remember us working on asjs for weeks without anyone
>> noticing the compiler wasn't producing runnable code ... same with the
>> little unit-tests that are still run for every example, that simply check
>> if an output is generated, because we had a prolonged period of time where
>> we were all working on different parts, but for quite some time the
>> application compilation just didn't output anything and no one noticed.
>> 
>> So coverage is nothing without assertions (my opinion) ... ok ... it's
>> slightly better than no coverage, but not much, in my opinion.
>> 
>> I think in parallel to this release discussions I have seen numerous
>> threads about someone doing something that broke something for someone
>> else. This could be addressed by increasing coverage by providing explicit
>> tests.
>> 
>> Coming back to the releases:
>> I have no objections, if you do a "release" locally and automate the
>> validation on the CI server (Which effectively would be your proposal to do
>> the first 12 steps on local hardware and the 13th on the CI server). I even
>> think that's a good idea ... There could be one step for building a release
>> from a given "git tag" for every build system and generic means to compare
>> tar.gz and zips produced by any build system with that of another (ideally
>> with better output than just a plain "true/false"). This would even help to
>> iron out the last potentially existing bumps out of the Maven distribution.
>> 
>> Chris
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Am 02.04.20, 07:59 schrieb "Alex Harui" <[email protected]>:
>> 
>>    Hi,
>> 
>>    This is my attempt to explain what goes into a release in hopes that
>> we can understand and agree on what our release process is.  It became
>> apparent in my reading of the wiki page with the new Maven steps and in
>> talking with Harbs today that there are still many misunderstandings about
>> what we do to create a release.  I don't generally like writing
>> instructions in English because it is easy to be ambiguous.  All of the
>> steps that we use to create releases had been captured in Ant scripts in a
>> much more explicit way, IMO, but I took the time to write them down in
>> English here:
>> https://github.com/apache/royale-asjs/wiki/Task-List-For-Royale-Releases
>> 
>>    I did this quickly by scanning the CI steps, the new Maven steps and
>> the Ant scripts used in prior releases so there could certainly be mistakes
>> and missed steps.  If I did my math right, the RM for 0.9.7 will have to
>> complete over 100 tasks (essentially, typing a command-line 100 times).
>> Future RMs, when we don't have to release build-tools, will have about 92
>> steps.  And I did not include voter verification checks the RM should run
>> before opening a vote (verifying that the artifacts download and match
>> their checksums, etc).  As an RM, I run a bunch of tests on the RC before
>> sending out the vote.  Maybe we should add those to the task list.
>> 
>>    I think there has been confusion about the use of Ant in the release
>> process.  Because I was the RM for the first set of FlexJS/Royale releases,
>> and I'm a lazy person who hates typing at the command line, I created Ant
>> scripts to execute these 100 steps.  But I agree that it is not a
>> requirement that other RMs must use the Ant scripts for these commands.  If
>> you are the RM and like typing, go ahead.
>> 
>>    Then we found out that other people couldn't get through this task
>> list.  I think the 3 people who tried were having trouble with Maven
>> uploads and downloads.  So what I did was put the first 40 steps or so into
>> Jenkins jobs.  And by doing that, Piotr was able to produce our last
>> release.  And that also saves on manually typing commands.  But again,
>> going forward, the RM gets to choose how they want to execute these steps.
>> 
>>    If you scan the set of steps, you'll see that "ant" is only in there
>> once.  I believe the recent threads have been about this single command out
>> of the 100+ commands.  This is why this has been so frustrating to me.  I
>> believe there is a solid technical reason for that one command:  it proves
>> that the build.xml files in the source packages can build the .tar.gz that
>> are useful to NPM and IDE users who use Ant and want to test a change.
>> 
>>    I think of it as code-coverage.  If we had code-coverage tools, we
>> would ask that the RM complete as much of the automated code-coverage
>> testing as possible before posting the release for a vote.  That one
>> command increases our code coverage by running the build.xml files.  We
>> should be always working to increase automated code coverage in the RC.
>> Certainly for me as RM, I will gladly watch TV as the automated tests run
>> because a failed RC means going back through many of the first 25 commands
>> again and wastes other people's time.  Each RC is more emails to read and
>> more time from the voters and testers.
>> 
>>    If there are other ways for the RM to get the same or better code
>> coverage on the build.xml files before posting the RC, we can discuss those
>> options.
>> 
>>    I am hopeful we can all agree on these simple principles:  Strive for
>> better code coverage and fewer failed RCs.  Royale's main purpose is to
>> save other people time.  Let's do that in creating releases too.
>> 
>>    One issue that was brought up recently was whether it is a good
>> decision to have the RM test all of the build platforms we support.
>> Suppose we add some other build system support or more in the future?
>> Again, the code coverage principle applies here, but also, I would like us
>> to retain feature parity, and I also hope for as few RCs and votes as
>> possible.  So instead of having separate votes/features/release-dates for
>> the Maven artifacts vs the Ant artifacts vs the SomeFutureBuildTech
>> artifacts, I think we should have one vote and keep them all in sync.  If
>> we do ever get around to monthly or bi-monthly releases, I think separate
>> build platform releases would be too much work.
>> 
>>    But consider this thought I just had today:  the RM doesn't really
>> have to choose to do all 100 commands on a local machine or with Ant
>> scripts or do the first 40 via CI.  The RM can actually pick and choose
>> commands to run on the CI server.  The CI Jenkins jobs are not a
>> separate/alternative release process, they are just another way of
>> executing the first 40 steps.  Using CI jobs actually requires additional
>> command-line cut-and-paste to push commits on the CI server and to sign and
>> validate binaries locally, but that's the trade-off of not having to
>> configure your machine to successfully run all of the automated tests and
>> build systems, and being able to run a command by filling in the version
>> number and rc number and hitting the "ok" button instead of making sure you
>> got the whole command typed in correctly.
>> 
>>    So, an RM can run the first 25 steps locally, then go the CI server
>> and run what is now Jenkins Job "Royale_Release_Step_013" (no need to run
>> the first 12) and it will run tasks 26 through 32, and if it is successful,
>> then the RM has proven code coverage of the build.xml files.  (If the
>> resulting tar.gz and zips are not posted, then the RM should verify that
>> they match the ones from Maven distribution).  I would encourage RMs to
>> also use the CI jobs that generate the emails to make sure the subject and
>> content is correct and contains the usual instructions so we have
>> consistency.  Maybe someday there will be CI jobs to do the last 60+ steps
>> if that helps.  We could add a Jenkins job that runs an Ant build on RC
>> artifacts on dist.a.o as well.
>> 
>>    I would like you all to help maintain the list of 100 steps and other
>> documents related to the release process, and improve the CI jobs and Ant
>> steps if it helps you be a more efficient RM.  I am hopeful that now that I
>> have hopefully explained our release process better, that we can see that
>> these 100+ steps just have to be done in some way.  The RM can figure out
>> what way works best for them, but they must get through all of them.
>> 
>>    Thanks,
>>    -Alex
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> -- 
> Carlos Rovira
> http://about.me/carlosrovira

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