Such model works but there is a risk of fixing again "from scratch" those bugs which were fixed once on the previous milestones.
We can eliminate this if follow "no regression" policy - if something works (classlib unit tests, Tomacat or Eclipse Unit Tests pass 100%, for example), it should continue working - any regression is a subject for reporting and fixing as soon as possible (it is easier to find root cause and fix since we will know which commit caused regression). Will this model work? Isn't it a little bit better than focusing on runtime stability periodically? On 11/8/06, Tim Ellison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I wouldn't go so far as to label issues as "won't fix" unless they are really high risk and low value items. It's useful to go through a stabilization period where the focus is on getting the code solid again and delaying significant new functionality until it is achieved. A plan that aims to deliver stable milestones on regular periods is, in my experience, a good way to focus the development effort. Regards, Tim Weldon Washburn wrote: > Folks, > > I have spent the last two months committing patches to the VM. While we > have added a ton of much needed functionality, the stability of the system > has been ignored. By chance, I looked at thread synchronization design > problems this week. Its very apparent that we lack the regression testing > to really find threading bugs, test the fixes and test against regression. > No doubt there are similar problems in other VM subsystems. "build test" > is necessary but not sufficient for where we need to go. In a sense, > committing code with only "build test" to prevent regression is the > equivalent to flying in the fog without instrumentation. > > So that we can get engineers focused on stability, I am thinking of coding > the JIRAs that involve new features as "later" or even "won't fix". Please > feel free to comment. > > We also need to restart the old email threads on regression tests. For > example, we need some sort of automated test script that runs Eclipse and > tomcat, etc. in a deterministic fashion so that we can compare test > results. It does not have to be perfect for starts, just repeatable and > easy to use. Feel free to beat me to starting these threads :) > -- Tim Ellison ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) IBM Java technology centre, UK.