[Python-Dev] Community buildbots and Python release quality metrics

["Martin v. Löwis"]

> That's also why the alpha is called an alpha.  My informal understanding
> is that a beta should have no (or at least very few) known issues

No, that's not the purpose. Instead, it is a promise that no further
features will be added, i.e. that the code is stable from a feature
point of view.

It certainly will contain bugs. The final release will certainly contain
bugs, just look at the long list of open bug reports.

> The issue, for me, is not specifically that tests are red.  It's that
> there's no clear policy about what to do about that.  Can a release go
> out with some of the tests being red?  If so, what are the extenuating
> circumstances?

The final release, no. The beta release: sure (in particular if it's the
first beta release).

Also make a difference between the Python buildbots, and the community
buildbots. I think few if any core committers ever look at the status
of the community buildbots - the community has to bring breakage to
our attention (as you just did).

> Does this have to be fixed?  If not, why not?

Here, I'm confused what specifically you talk about. That Django doesn't
import? It is certainly not part of the release procedure to verify that
Django can still be imported.

> Why are
> we talking about this now?  Shouldn't the change which caused Django to
> become unimportable have been examined at the time, rather than months
> later?

Somebody should have pointed it out when it happened. Unfortunately,
nobody did, so apparently, the community doesn't really care.

> I don't know.  JP is already addressing the issues affecting Twisted in
> another thread (incompatible changes in the private-but-necessary-to-
> get-any-testing-done API of the warnings module).  But I really think
> that whoever made the change which broke it should be the one
> investigating it, not me.

How could they have known that they broke it?

Regards,
Martin