[mythtv] mythtv-vid branch needs testing

[Daniel Kristjansson]

On Fri, 2007-08-03 at 16:16 -0400, hendrixski at storsint.com wrote:
> :-) There would be two ways to ensure testers get the most up-to-date
> patches via debian packages.
> 
> 1) Make a script that compiles and debianizes the latest svn every night
> then posts it on the repository (not advisable).
> 
> 2) Make a script that converts the patches to dpatches and inserts them
> into the deb, then post that deb on the repository every night.  (this
> way if someone suspects that a patch caused more bugs, they can just
> remove one line of code from debian/patches/00patch, run debuild -S, run
> dpkg -i mythtv-latest.deb, and they've uninstalled the patch, and can
> test run without it).
> 
> Would that increase the number of people who can test the latest, most
> up-to-date patches?  After all, with enough eyeballs all bugs are shallow.

I don't want everyone to test a patch for tester X, just tester X.
When I write a debug patch it may very well break important things,
such as playback of video, but it will help reveal the problem that
the tester experienced. I may at the same time have a patch for
tester Y and and another for tester Z, none of which are compatible.
If someone can't be bothered to compile MythTV then I'm afraid they
are unlikely to put in the time required to figure out the cause of
a bug so it can be fixed, nor are they likely to even know how to
apply a patch. When someone tells me they applied a patch and got
a certain result, when in fact they failed to apply the patch or
failed to compile or failed to install the updated software, then
this sends me looking for the problem elsewhere, wasting time that
could be spent solving problems.

-- Daniel