[maemo-developers] Extras-testing improvements

[From: tero.kojo at nokia.com]

----- Original message -----
> On Tuesday 09 of March 2010, Graham Cobb wrote:
> > The community needs a place where **every** app passes through a very
> basic
> > QA to try to make sure it is safe and it is then available.  That is
> what
> > Extras is.
>
> IMHO, that's not extras. Currently extras is the elite of maemo's
> software.
>
> Explaining: Asking for 10 votes for each version of each application is
> something that I call paranoia in software development. For example:
> I've a
> fully optified app that works without problem, but will never be
> promoted to
> extras because there are not enough developers with interest in it
> (more
> specifically: women).

That is a problem that needs a solution. The niche products need to reach extras too.

> But the audience of extras is very different and
> there
> would be interested audience if it were there.
>
> What's the reasoning of asking 10 people to do the same thing? This is
> now
> popularity contest instead of a QA process. Popular apps among
> developers
> (techie guys) advance. Non-popular apps wait.
>
> Assuming that the QA process is a serious process, asking 10 people to
> do the
> exact same thing isn't serious.

If those ten people are all doing the same thing I would be surprised. Ten people, ten different test styles.

> If the check is performed correctly,
> you
> should need at most 2 persons. If the check if not performed correctly
> then 10
> is not enough.
>
> I suggest you take a look at debian's method. Having a kind of maemo-
> developers that act responsibly, certifying applications would be a
> good
> solution. Currently the vote of a person without any programming
> abilities is
> the same with a person's that can program and have performed the
> checks.
>
> The best solution IMHO would be for Nokia to have 1 or 2 people to do
> this job
> responsibly instead of relying on statistical methods.

Now you are mixing Nokia with the Community. The two are different.

The reasoning behind the number of people is that people behave differently and having just one person go through the app will not cover the use cases of any app. Also it would leave the system wide open for gaming it.

I have no idea what is the optimal number of people, but it is not 1-2.

> That would also
> be very
> good support of the community efforts and would boost software
> development.
> After all, the applications in extras is a big part of the (future)
> value of
> maemo/meego.

Could you elaborate? How does Nokia testers boost development?

I can't follow that logic, but I agree that having good quality open source software is important.

Tero

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