A service for testing Python code on multiple platforms and versions

[Stef Mientki]

David Moss wrote:
> Hopefully a service like this already exists and I just haven't found
> it yet. If not it could be an idea for some kind soul(s) to pick up
> and run with ;-)
>
> As someone who writes and releases Python modules for the community, I
> find it difficult to have a decent level of confidence in the efficacy
> of my code on platforms and Python versions other than those that I
> own or use regularly. My documentation states that I support Python
> 2.3 or higher. This ends up being more of a statement of good
> intentions than a one of fact.
>
> A case in point. A bug (in Python), that I believed to have been
> killed off after Python 2.2, resurfaced in a 2.4.x release of Python
> on PowerPC recently. As I don't own any PowerPC kit, it was very
> difficult to a) investigate the bug and b) create an effective fix for
> it in a timely fashion. Fortunately I'd come across it before so the
> fix was easy but it might not have been.
>
> While I realise one's code can never be perfect, you can cover for
> these sorts of eventualities fairly easily by running your software
> and unit tests under different environments. You'd also like to be
> able to do this on a continual basis rather than just once or twice.
> If this was done with some kind of automated testing and reporting so
> much the better. Bigger projects that take code quality seriously
> probably already have this sort of thing in place for their own
> purposes, but for smaller ones it just isn't possible.
>
> Wouldn't it be great to have a service/setup out there available for
> Python developers to access that covered a fairly broad base of
> possible Python installations for the purpose of improve overall code
> quality? Am I the only one that would find something like this useful?
>   
I would love to have such a tool, but have no idea how to create 
something like that.
Something like a multi-virtual machine on a web server, that you launch 
in the night,
and in the morning you would get a full report of all problems on the 
specific OSs
(probably someone is going to say that this is impossible, but 
fortunately I'm not hindered by any knowledge ;-)

cheers,
Stef

> Dave M.
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