Re: [fluid-dev] Building and stability [was: a new program using FluidSynth]

[Josh Green]

Hello Paul,

On Tue, 2007-04-17 at 19:01 +0100, Paul Millar wrote:
> Hi Josh,
> 
> On Tuesday 17 April 2007 11:12, Josh Green wrote:
> > As for the crashing problems.  Several windows users have mentioned that
> > there are stability/build issues with more recent versions of
> > FluidSynth.  I hate the thought that my contributions to FluidSynth have
> > actually made it worse in some regards.  It would be nice to get this
> > sorted out, so that you could use the most recent version.
> 
> I've jotted down some ideas below.  They're all probably obvious and I'm 
> afraid I can't contribute any spare time towards implementing any of them (I 
> know, "talk is cheap"), but I might be able to help out in other ways.
> 

Yes I'm aware that talk is cheap, since I've done quite a bit of it
myself in regards to FluidSynth :)

> Automated builds, test suites and regression testing is often a way forward 
> with QA.
> 

I totally agree there.  But have not really thought about that.  I've
only started adding test suits for my own projects, but its easy to see
how useful they can be, to catch problems before they get out of hand.

> I've had some experience with automating activity under Linux, so these 
> solutions are all Linux-orientated.  There may be some Windows-based ones 
> that people with Win-boxes could implement.
> 
> Are these MSVC++ build problems also present when building with MinGW?  
> Cross-building might be an easy way of checking that the Windows code-base is 
> roughly correct.
> 

The 1.0.3 version I built with MinGW and even tested it by running the
resulting binary under wine.  I do have VMWare though, which I can use
to do builds.

> For stability, unit and regression testing may help.  It looks like 
> fluidsynth 
> doesn't have any test suite at the moment (unless I missed them).  Adding 
> test would require some kind of framework, which is often a royal PITA to 
> setup.  But, once the framework is in place, adding new tests is oddly 
> satisfying (or is that just me?)
> 

Nope it doesn't have any test suits currently and I haven't quite found
that satisfaction yet for adding new tests.  Perhaps because there is
still a bit of work to do to get that framework in place :)

> HTH,
> 
> Paul.

I'm looking forward to having FluidSynth managed by Trac.  This will at
least allow me, and other users, to keep track of tickets and start
making a real milestone roadmap.  Stagnation has not been doing the
FluidSynth project any good.  Its nice to know that it is still alive
though, just need to bring in some fresh interest.

Best regards,
        Josh