Re: [Chicken-users] buildbot for chicken?

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Graham Fawcett wrote:
> http://buildbot.sourceforge.net/ -- "The BuildBot is a system to
> automate the compile/test cycle required by most software projects to
> validate code changes. 


Kitware has something called the "Dart dashboard" that accomplishes a 
similar purpose. 
http://public.kitware.com/Dart/HTML/Index.shtml
http://www.cmake.org/Testing/Dashboard/20060622-0100-Nightly/Dashboard.html

Dart is integrated with CMake and CTest.  I intend at some point to get 
such a thing going.  I'll be asking Kitware if they offer resources for 
such things, and if not, I'm sure they'll give us pointers on how to set 
up our own resources.  But at present we have a more pressing problem: 
we don't have a test suite for the build.  Certainly we can determine if 
the build breaks, and that has some value, but it's not a big win as I'm 
always testing before I make a check-in anyways.  I suspect Felix does 
similarly, i.e. make sure it works on his box before throwing it into 
the source pool.  Really we need full test suite coverage to shake out 
unanticipated consequences.  For inspiration I would note that Bigloo 
Scheme has an extensive test suite.  Bigloo is GPL; perhaps there are 
source pools out there under BSD license that a test suite could be 
lifted from

I bet integrating with Darcs will be a PITA as it's not the most 
widespread source control out there.  Automagically reporting who broke 
what is a very low priority to me for the amount of work involved.  Very 
few people are actually touching the source pool and it's easy to do 
"darcs whatsnew --last=5".

If anyone wants to push the ball forwards on such things sooner, please 
feel welcome.  I can recommend and say I'm going to do all sorts of 
stuff, but the reality is I'm 1 guy, now with a dog I have to provide 
for, and I have to work.  I'm about to run down to Oregon for a couple 
of weeks, hope to make lotsa money and have time free afterwards.  
CMake-based technologies are going to become better ensconced if more 
people try them out, adopt them, learn how to use them, etc.


Cheers,
Brandon Van Every