Newsgroups: php.internals
Path: news.php.net
Xref: news.php.net php.internals:28061
Mailing-List: contact internals-help@lists.php.net; run by ezmlm
Received-SPF: error (pb1.pair.com: domain iamjochem.com from 194.109.193.121 cause and error)
Message-ID: <45D5D304.1010808@iamjochem.com>
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 16:51:32 +0100
User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.9 (Windows/20061207)
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Antony Dovgal <antony@zend.com>
CC: php-dev <internals@lists.php.net>
References: <45D47062.1010405@zend.com> <45D4DCF3.2050007@zend.com> <45D589C4.402@zend.com> <45D5AAE4.60008@iamjochem.com> <45D5AEB5.10800@zend.com>
In-Reply-To: <45D5AEB5.10800@zend.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=KOI8-R
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] RCs explained (draft)
From: jochem@iamjochem.com (Jochem Maas)

Antony Dovgal wrote:
> On 02/16/2007 04:00 PM, Jochem Maas wrote:
>> I would make the whole sentence above ALL CAPS
> 
> This text should appear at qa.php.net, so no need for CAPS (which are
> difficult to read), we can just use <b></b>.

indeed - I was merely stressing that you probably cannot highlight the fact
that RCs concern non-production code enough :-) bold is just as good if not better
than all-caps.

> 
>>> Although, you might encounter some problems during the installation and
>>
>> I would replace 'Although, you might encounter' with 'If you encounter'
> 
> Agree.
> 
>>> Test engine.
>>
>> the header 'Test Engine' might not be understood and/or frighten off
>> beginners
>> (whilst doing the tests is actually very easy).
>>
>> you might encourage more people to run the test engine if you named
>> the header
>> for this section something like one of the following:
>>
>> Test Your New Installation.
>> Check your Installation with the Integrated Test Suite.
> 
> Agree.
> 
>> you may wish to stress how valuable this information is to you and how
>> much
>> you appreciate that people send them.
> 
> Any certain suggestions?
> Somehow I've lost the inspiration I had in the morning =)

something like this?:

the php group would like to thank you in advance for taking the time to
perform and send us the results of the test suite.

AND/OR

Each and every report goes towards helping us provide the best software we can,
your feedback is a valuable resource and the PHP group would hereby like to extend
their gratitude for your effort.

> 
>> I would remove 'obviously' and change 'cannot' with 'does not yet',
>> this would invoke more of a feeling of 'being in good [dev] hands' ...
>> which I feel is not completely out of place :-)
> 
> The point is that any real-life test is better than a test suite,
> because a test suite will never cover everything.

indeed - nothing like real world apps to really push php to it's limits -
no doubt that your average php'er sometimes does such crazy things that an
experienced dev would often not even imagine doing such things :-)

> But I do agree with the wording, yes.

maybe something like this:

Currently the test suite does not completely cover all code in the php software
(this is something we are working on!), regardless of this fact it is our experience
that testing pre-release versions of php against real-world [php] software - this is
due to a number of reasons:

1. end users often push the envelope of what is possible farther than the original
developer intended.
2. end users' creative use of the language can lead to as yet unforeseen cases
being brought to light.
3. real-world software environments are highly diverse, custom/exotic configurations
sometimes bring problems to light that developers often have no way of pre-empting.

we therefore kind request that you try out your own software with RC versions of php and
report any problems to bug.php.net, issues that you bring to light will help to improve
php itself and often your discoveries will lead to improvements in the test suite as well.

we would like to make a special appeal to developers of large/successful (e.g. phpMyAdmin)
php projects to test against pre-release versions, your input is of great importance due to
the highly visible nature of your application and the large users bases they support. the PHP
group recognizes the importance of large/successful [php] software projects in continuing/promoting
the success of the [php] language - your success is important to us, please help us in our
mission to provide as high quality platform as possible for your software!

the PHP group extends their gratitude to everyone who offers up their valuable time to
help with the testing effort.

> 

... just some thoughts :-)