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

[From: Quim Gil]

ext Aniello Del Sorbo wrote:
> I am not developing for  Apple because of their approval process and
> their desire of control.

What is your opinion about Deboan, Ubuntu, Fedora... all of them having
also QA processes in place in order to make it to their stable releases?


> I don't want my application to go through an approval process to reach my users.
> I think that the developer HAS the last work on whether or not her
> application is ready to be promoted to Extras.

Your work as an individual developer has an impact on the overall image
the Maemo platform and even the Maemo devices have in the hands of real
users. maemo.org wants to keep good quality for community applications
and this is why this community qa process was started.

You can still skip it completely by convicing your users to install the
version in extras devel, go ahead with your own repo... From a community
point of view you are simply not encouraged to do so and follow the QA
process.


> But I like the idea of my application being tested and I'd love to get
> feedback from the final users.
> Android has a nice approach, I think the application goes straight to
> Market and when a user removes it, she's being asked why.

After going through
http://www.android.com/us/developer-distribution-agreement.html - which
I reckon I haven't read entirely.


> I learned that the extremes are almost never the best choice.
> Thus, I would like to see is a mix of Apple idea of "testers" and
> Google Android "uninstallation survey".
> 
> Here's my proposal:
> 
> We leave Extras-Testing as it is, with votes, comments, bug reports an
> so on (or improve it, as you wish).
> But then it's only the developer that decides, based on that feedback,
> if or not to promote the application to Extras.
> 
> When the application gets promoted to Extras, people will start using it.
> 
> If there's a major bug, the user will uninstall the application.
> 
> The Application Manager should ask the user, as Android Market does,
> WHY she uninstalling the application.
> Of course she may choose not to give any feedback.
> One of the choice she has is "Uninstalling because of a bug" and she
> can fill in the bug if she wish so.

Implementing this in the Application Manager before the Maemo 5 final
release is impossible. Only debating it here might take longer.

> 
> This bug goes straight to bugzilla for that application and we should
> count them and decide on two limits: a soft threshold and a hard one.
> 
> Soft threshold:
> if the application goes below this soft limit a yellow flag is raised
> (how to handle it, it's another topic).
> 
> Hard threshold:
> if the application goes below this hard limit a red flag is raised and
> application pulled from Extras.
> 
> This way the Developer has full control of when and how she wants her
> application to reach the public.
> The Community has some control of which applications should be removed.
> 
> A good application with a good developer stays there.
> A good application with a slow developer might get a yellow flag and
> developer may feel pushed more to fix bugs
> A good application with a bad developer might become buggy over time,
> outdated and gets pulled out
> A bad application with a good developer has a better chance to become a good one
> A bad application with a slow developer has its life on the edge of a
> razor.. be ware
> A bad application with a bad developer is dead and not in Extras.
> 
> Aniello
> 
> 2009/9/24 Quim Gil <quim.gil at nokia.com>:
>>
>> 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
>>
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>>
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Quim Gil
open source advocate
Maemo Devices @ Nokia