[sword-devel] Getting willing people to work!

[Palumbo, William]

I would have to agree with Trevor.  Anyone can be a tester.  It would help
if we had more direction.  A test script, task list, etc.  Something a bit
more comprehensive than we currently have.  

Even if a dozen programmers landed on our doorstep tomorrow, what would they
do?  What is priority?  Where is the greatest need, etc.

Essentially we just need some solid project management.

William

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Trevor Jenkins [mailto:trevor.jenkins@suneidesis.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2001 4:23 AM
> To: sword-devel@crosswire.org
> Subject: Re: [sword-devel] Getting willing people to work!
> 
> 
> On Tue, 16 Jan 2001, Jonathan Hughes <jhughes@crosswire.org> wrote:
> 
> >     I hope that everyone at least got to take a little 
> break on Martin
> > Luther King, Jr. Day!
> 
> It's not celebrated here in old England.
> 
> > ... I have sitting here in my mail folders two e-mails
> > from people that have openly stated on the sword-devel 
> mailinglist they
> > would like to help with Sword in some manner and both of 
> them have not
> > received any answer about how they could help. To me, 
> people willing to help
> > need to be put to work! :) How do we need to treat people 
> that are new and
> > willing to help? Should we send a little bit of a 
> questionnaire like what
> > are their coding abilities, and talents that will be an aid 
> to our project
> > and then plug them in? What are other peoples ideas, I was 
> going to just
> > send this to Troy but thought maybe other people would have 
> some ideas also!
> > So lets start throwing those ideas around!
> 
> I recall that at least one of the recent volunteers said they 
> were not a
> programmer. However, everyone can be a tester. Problems need to be
> reported. Whether they are functional problems causing 
> program crashes or
> idiocyncracies of the interface(s) all need to be reported. 
> They'll not
> get fixed. Documentation needs reviewing, split infinitives need
> repairing, spelling misteaks corrected, better explanations
> written. Modules need reviewing (but as was pointed out recently not
> everyone involved knows Vietnamese).
> 
> Long time ago Prof Peter Brown suggested that test 
> installations should be
> made by novices wilst the program author was on holiday. This 
> tested the
> installation instructions and the ease of installation. For 
> details you
> can read "Writing Interactive Compilers and Interpreters ". 
> For an example
> of how to write good technical explanations read the same book. He
> suggests that proram authors should give a beer to the first 
> person who
> finds a particular bug. (Many commerical software producers 
> would have to
> buy a brewery.) That it's now over the age of maturity, originally in
> 1979, and hasn't been better nor sadly the lessons learnt means that
> there's a long way to go. (With many more breweries being 
> required than in
> 1979.) Brown also presents the 14 deadly sins of program 
> writing, which is
> a humourous compendium of typical programmer's mistakes.
> 
> How's about collating a regression test suite? Something that a
> non-programming volunteer could do. Running QA tests on new
> releases. Again something that a non-techncial volunteer could
> do. Writing, reviewing, editing documentation. The tasks are 
> legion. Just
> needs someone to volunteer to compile the list. Note that many of the
> things I've brainstormed are not one-offs but are necessary and vital
> aspects of the project.
> 
> Regards, Trevor
> 
> British Sign Language is not inarticulate handwaving; it's a 
> living language.
> Support the campaign for formal recognition by the British 
> government now!
> 
> -- 
> 
> <>< Re: deemed!
>