[Developers] Software development process

[dave fournier]

On 12-04-04 01:08 PM, Arni Magnusson wrote:

I've hard all this bullshit so many times before.  You take a bunch of 
people who don't know what they are doing and form a committee. The you 
tell the committee to formulate a complete design plan.
Six months later you put it in a nice document.  A year later you start 
over.  If open source needs this
maybe that is what's wrong with open source.



> Thanks, Matthew, for stirring our minds.
>
> As the ADMB Project grows (number of people, number of features, 
> number of bugs, etc.), this may be a good time to think about whether 
> we can benefit from adopting certain software development methodologies.
>
> You and Johnoel know more about this than the others. It sounds like 
> you are not suggesting any specific methodologies at this point, just 
> encouraging everyone to read and think about them.
>
> ---
>
> Generally, the ADMB Project follows the methodology known as
>
>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy_coding
>
> The main advantages are light overhead and fun. As most of us 
> contribute to ADMB in our free time, it must be fun. Cowboy coding is 
> at one extreme, and at the other extreme we have Dilbert coding, with 
> overly complex and vague methodologies that keep changing. The ADMB 
> Project is moving only slightly towards the middle ground. Dilbert in 
> chaps?
>
> Automated testing (Buildbot and unit tests) is a good example, where 
> Johnoel has radically improved the development process - without 
> adding any burden or requirements on the developers.
>
> The annual developers' workshop is also a key "methodology", where we 
> make sure things are moving in a sensible direction, in a sensible 
> way. They also mark the beginning of the release procedure, generate 
> new ideas, and add to the fun factor.
>
> Version control is a given, and SVN is what cowboys ride. Actually, I 
> have one suggestion related to ADMB development methodology: to 
> install ViewVC, so we can browse and diff the repository using a web 
> browser. My sysadmin has deployed it here at Hafro with success. This 
> is what it looks like:
>
>   http://gcc.gnu.org/viewcvs/trunk/
>   http://r-forge.r-project.org/scm/viewvc.php/pkg/?root=glmmadmb
>
> Thinking about potentially useful development methods/tools doesn't 
> hurt. My feeling is that the ADMB Project is doing reasonably well, 
> with developers enthusiastically contributing to different aspects of 
> the project. Johnoel serves a key role, including quality control, and 
> is doing a great job.
>
> Arni
>
>
>
> On Wed, 4 Apr 2012, Matthew Supernaw wrote:
>
>> All,
>>
>> Please checkout the follow link:
>>
>> http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_development_process
>>
>> I recommend that we develop a formal and concise software development 
>> plan, it will make our work much easier!
>>
>> Matthew
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Developers mailing list
> Developers at admb-project.org
> http://lists.admb-project.org/mailman/listinfo/developers
>