[maemo-developers] How to use extras-testing correctly?

[From: Quim Gil]

ext Fred Lefévère-Laoide wrote:
> I know you can't force people to vote or test ... But it means that if 
> an app has a very limited public it doesn't get out of extras-testing ?

This is a very good point. I believe it won't be an issue once there are
more people with devices able to vote, but still.

Something that would help is to have a strict chronological sorting at
http://maemo.org/packages/repository/qa/fremantle_extras-testing_free_armel/
so oldest submissions are always on top. And encourage people to help
kicking the apps on the top even if they don't use it normally. At the
end it's not that hard to give an app a shot and look whether the basic
QA factors are in place.

I believe after the N900 sales start there will be also a sustainability
approach for the applications not used by many.

Some will be highly specialized with a small but committed audience that
will help testing and ranking. If a bug goes through they will be the
ones suffering it first.  :)

Some will be just starting and have a real small audience. But well, in
such cases a bug going through won't cause much harm either. In most
cases as the audience grows the less obvious bugs will pop up and then
the developer will need to respond with newer and better versions. If
major bugs are standing without fixes and the users of the app increase,
then the relevance of the bug will increase as well and it might imply
at some point the demotion back to extras-testing.


-- 
Quim Gil
open source advocate
Maemo Devices @ Nokia