[GRASS5] New GRASS Quality Control System online

[Sören Gebbert]

Hi,

On Tuesday 18 April 2006 18:19, Markus Neteler wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> I would like to suggest again the running quality control system. Developers
> can receive personalized emails in quasi real time which indicate potential
> problems or a big "OK". In my/our/ opinion an immediate notification is
> good since memories are still fresh. Like this the ongoing introduction of
> cloned code could be minimized. Also other features are available as
> indicated below.

This is a great tool, thank you.
I found a baby_monster that i have programmed .... maybe i can refract it ... . :)

And i would like to remind that there is also a small test suite for grass availible.

> Please a few volunteers may subscribe to make it a useful system.
> It only makes sense if GRASS developers use it and suggestion improvements.

How can i subscribe? Did i miss some informations?

> I am sure that quality control will save us time later...

Indeed! The quality control system and the test suite should be used.

Best regards 
soeren

> 
> Markus
> 
> Markus Neteler wrote:
> 
> >Dear GRASS developers and interested users,
> >
> >as you know, GRASS is a huge system with thousands of files and
> >hundreds of thousands of lines of code. You are contributing to the
> >development - but do you sometimes wonder how quality is ensured in
> >such a big project? Sure, there is the commit mailing list which shows
> >changes in real time. But probably more could be done.
> >
> >Today we want to propose a new system to you:
> >At Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal a new software quality control
> >system has been developed which checks the CVS changes as distributed
> >by the GRASS commit mailing list for potential problems. We would like
> >to invite you to try this new GRASS source code quality monitoring
> >service. We, that are Giulio Antoniol, Ettore Merlo, Salah Bouktif and
> >Markus Neteler. Based on Free Software tools and the software
> >engineering knowledge of the people of Ecole Polytechnique de
> >Montreal, this quality assessment system was realized as combined
> >email notifier and Web dashboard.
> >
> >So, what do you and the GRASS project gain from that? Three principal
> >services are provided to you and the community:
> >
> >- The first service analyzes and controls the complexity increase and
> >  potential quality declining;
> >
> >- The second supports distributed developers to perform safe evolution
> >  by sending them a feedback report after each contribution in order to
> >  avoid abnormal actions;
> >
> >- The third allows developers to learn about the big picture of the
> >  whole software by providing them with a dashboard of the project
> >  evolution.
> >
> >What could go wrong? The *first service* checks if new functions or
> >modifications are getting too complex which renders them
> >unmaintainable. The service also checks if a modified function,
> >probably written by someone else, is already too complex and should
> >better broken into pieces. Finally it checks if functions are cloned,
> >i.e. that several code pieces are identical or nearly identical. In
> >this case such clones should be removed (e.g. by moving the function
> >to the related GRASS library).
> >
> >As *second service* this report is sent to the developer shortly after
> >each CVS modification. Memory is still fresh and the developer is
> >invited to act upon a newly introduced problem or invited to attack an
> >old outstanding problem with legacy code in GRASS.
> >
> >The *third service* is a Web site which provides easy code navigation
> >to better study clones or complex functions (we call them "baby
> >monsters" or "monsters" and put them into the "monster garage" there
> >for inspection). Also detailed graphs will be generated to better
> >illustrate the problems identified.
> >
> >It is our goal to make the services a help and understandable even to
> >the "hobby" programmer. And of course, to help to improve the code
> >quality. Better code is easier to maintain - so please give the system
> >a try.
> >
> >To receive the code monitoring messages of your contributions, please
> >just send a mail to Markus that you are interested. To take a look at
> >the dashboard, check here:
> >
> >http://web.soccerlab.polymtl.ca/grass-evolution/grass-browsers/grass-index-en.html
> >
> >To log into the GRASS restricted, enter:
> >User: grass  (pw: "grass6")
> >
> >Our plan in the long term is to develop personalized services and
> >different views for different developers. This is a beta test and we
> >need your help to identify weaknesses and possible enhancements.
> >
> >For example, as suggested by Ettore, we could easily implement a
> >service to check files/functions for quality indexes before performing
> >the actual CVS commit, kind of preventive verification.
> >
> >We are happy to give more feedback! Let us know or simply try the
> >new system out.
> >
> >Best regards
> >
> > Markus
> >
> >in collaboration with and grateful to:
> >  Giulio Antoniol <antoniol AT ieee.org>
> >  Salah Bouktif <salah.bouktif AT polymtl.ca>
> >  Ettore Merlo <ettore.merlo AT polymtl.ca>
> >
> >_______________________________________________
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> >grass5 at grass.itc.it
> >http://grass.itc.it/mailman/listinfo/grass5
> >  
> >
> 
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