[TIP] Nosejobs!

Jesse Noller jnoller at gmail.com
Fri Apr 10 11:23:43 PDT 2009


> -> If the test dies after 30 minutes and you don't find out about it for 13+ more days?
> -> There has to be a middle ground between a constant connection and a moon shot. Even moon shots steer along the way. :)
>
> I'm sure you want to know: What Would Titus Do?
>
> Well, I have some insight there... he would probably implement a simple
> wrapper that used subprocess to run things & kept an eye on the process,
> killing it if it got wedged etc.  Reporting would be accomplished by
> that wrapper.

Bingo. Not hard, been done, doing it tomorrow. Subprocesses are
wonderful :) This is why tightly coupling nosejobs to nose might be a
bad idea. Dunno yet, I'll figure that out after I (in the words of my
two year old) "DOOOO IIIIIT".

> Then he would chase down the corner cases with an axe or a baseball bat,
> depending on how he felt that day.

Yup. And if a test developer crapped in my sandbox, I would provide
him with a suitable amount of poop in his. If that test developer is
me, well, then, I guess it's a recursive issue.

> Seriously, there are very few unsolved problems in the kind of thing
> that Jesse is talking about, merely the complexity of fitting them all
> together and choosing the right tradeoffs.  It's not a technology
> problem -- it's a design problem.

What titus said: Take what we know, put it together into something
rational; build the "Django of Distributed Systems, and the Django of
Distributed Test systems - make it testable, doc'ed, clear and simple.
Make the easy things easy, and the hard things safe.

> p.s. Actually, what I would do is release the first iteration that
> solved about 60-80% of people's problems, promote it wildly on this list
> and through my blog, and then stop working on it.  In about a year,
> people would then start making really straightforward and obvious
> suggestions to improve the thing, and I'd be forced to either integrate
> their patches or give up on the package.  Based on an n=2, that is what
> would happen...

Sounds good to me!

jesse



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