[pm-h] Livening up the Group

[G. Wade Johnson]

On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 05:40:35 -0500
Mike Flannigan <mikeflan at earthlink.net> wrote:

> 
> "G. Wade Johnson" wrote:
> 
> >
> > We could take a look at the Phalanx 100, which is the list of modules they
> > are currently focusing on, and choose one that generates some interest.
> >
> > http://qa.perl.org/phalanx/100/
> >
> 
> That Archive-Zip module needs testing.  It's slow and it fails
> every once in a while - less than 1% of the time.

The best way to get things like that fixed is with test cases that help to
reproduce the problem. (At least, that is the theory.) That's part of what the
project is about.

> snip
> 
> >
> > There seem to be a wide range of modules in the list. You can get an idea
> > of the testing coverage for different modules from
> > http://pjcj.sytes.net/cpancover/
> >
> 
> Yeah, they seem to be pretty far along in the testing.  You
> get the feeling they will be largely done by the end of this
> year.

A short while back, I decided to make my Text::Graph module have 100% coverage
in the testing. It was a surprise to see how long it takes to go those last
few percent. I don't think they are as close as you think.

> I think if we took on Phalanx as a group activity, very
> few people would actually contribute.  It looks too
> hard and boring to me  :-)

That may be a fair assessment.<grin/> I thought we might like to try it for
several reasons:

 * "Real" practice in Perl (for those who aren't doing Perl regularly)
 * Practice with Perl testing modules
 * Help out any modules that you might particularly have an interest in
 * Helping CPAN improve.

Granted it is a fair amount of work. If anyone in group has any interest, let
me know and we might start working with just a few of us.

<snip/>

Thanks for the input, Mike.

Does anyone else have any opinions, or does Mike speak for the group?

Later,
G. Wade
-- 
That which does not kill me makes me stranger.         -- Larry Wall