[Testing] Journal and Tubes minutes, 8/28/07

[Kim Quirk]

Attending: Tomeu, Jim, Kim, Christian, Dan, Eben, Scott, Ben, Marco, Dafydd

*Journal:*

   - Performance and memory usage issues were discussed and are high
   priority for Trial-3. Two bugs were added to trac,
3057<https://dev.laptop.org/ticket/3057>,
   memory usage, and 3058 <https://dev.laptop.org/ticket/3058>, default
   indexing should not be full text for trial-3. We should continue discussions
   on indexing techniques and create a trac item for 'smarter' indexing in the
   future.


   - We discussed some of the issues around adding versioning at this
   time. Here are some identified risks to adding the feature:
      - This is a good size feature which has not been in the build at
      all yet; so we don't know if it will affect many other things.
      - We really don't have good test resources or methodical
      processes, so it will take a while to find the more hidden bugs.
Any fairly
      large feature would have this problem and with only 2 weeks to
get to code
      freeze there is a pretty big risk that something will be found late (for
      instance after Ben has gone on vacation).
      - The current journal is becoming well-understood (stable). The
      performance/memory issues are higher priority and might be
hidden (difficult
      to isolate) by adding this new feature.
   - Here are some risks identified to NOT adding this feature:
      - Incremental saves -- we can implement this with a manual 'copy
      file' (Keep button, see 3063<https://dev.laptop.org/ticket/3063>)
      type feature before FRS. We also will have the back up to school
server, so
      student data loss should not be at high risk.
      - Versioning is the basis for the more elaborate merging
      capability, which isn't ready and won't be ready until after FRS.
      - Need to ensure backward compatibility when we do introduce the
      feature

The decision is NOT to add the version feature for Trial-3/FRS, but to get
to the design review stage for the next release, V1.1.

   - Ben has checked his work into a branch that we can review as part of
   the design and code review.
   - Ben will write up his design spec for versioning and make the link
   available before he goes on vacation. Kim will help set up the design review
   for when he returns.
      - Some of the questions that should be addressed in the design
      doc include API for backup to school server, automated backups
(if any), API
      for activity developers who want to access older versions, any
      security-related issues, indexing for performance, performance and
      scalability, and memory usage (if important). It will help if
this doc links
      the UI designs.

Marco mentioned some other 'features/bugs' that should still be addressed
over the next week. If he (or anyone) identifies a bug that might be
destablizing to other things in the build; or is much bigger than originally
expected, please bring it to our attention so we can help come up with a
smaller solution or triage whether it is really needed in this release.


*Tubes*

   - The new mesh protocol being developed to address some of the
   robustness and scalability issues will not be ready for review for another
   week or two. We will not have this feature for Trial-3 or FRS. That implies
   that the design now needs to take into account the backward compatibility of
   this protocol with earlier ones -- perhaps the ability to recognize the
   version differences and provide a message to the student to upgrade might be
   good enough.
   - Invites are behind -- the presence server piece is not complete yet,
   but Dafydd hopes to have it done today or tomorrow. This is a big enough
   feature that not having seen it by now is pretty risky. There is not a lot
   of time to do methodical testing and we are still learning how it all works.

   - Our plan for what to do if Invites don't make it or cause other
   problems when we get the code will be to remove this feature from Trial-3.
   We really want the ability to invite individuals to collaboration, so this
   is a pretty high priority feature. We'd like to get it in a build as soon as
   possible.
   - Other features from collabra have not yet been delivered since they
   have been developing in a separate branch. It was suggested that they should
   get some of their tested code changes to us as soon as they can.


We had some discussion on what it means to specify the jabber server or not.
If there is no jabber server specified, XOs can only collaborate with others
it sees on local link on the same mesh channel. With a jabber server, all
XOs that specify that server will see each other for collaboration purposes
(even across different mesh channels).

We may need to specify that if there is a school server (jabber server) then
the XO should NOT use the local link jabber service. (Jim if this is needed
now, would you please write up a trial-3 high priority bug?)

-Kim

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