[Mono-list] SPAM-LOW: Re: NUnit Version - Upgrade soon?

[Miguel de Icaza]

Hello,

>  
> 1. NUnit is used as both a build tool for Mono itself and as an tool
> for developers creating applications under Mono. Up to now, I think
> we have failed to treat these two uses as distinct problems, possibly
> calling for distinct solutions.

Well, in the meantime it seems like Atsushi has upgraded NUnit to 2.4 on
the tree, so this will improve things slightly, but I agree that they
need to be treated as separate problems.

For instance, the new code will debut in Mono 2.4, but users of Mono 2.0
should be able to get NUnit packaged for 2.0 today.  
 
> 2. The NUnit team doesn't provide a decent install for NUnit on Linux.

I think there are two parts to this:

	* You must provide an easy-to-build setup for Unix systems,
	  this should probably be makefile based, and it is not
	  very hard.   It might even be there.

	* You should write build instructions that can be used
	  to automate builds for multiple distributions.

The first case will allow people to get sources from your site and
install it on their own.   The second one will be used to provide
out-of-the-box packages for the latest NUnit version across multiple
Linux distributions.

You can use the OpenSUSE build service which has support for pretty much
every Red Hat, Debian, Ubuntu and SUSE distribution to make packages for
you.

So when you release a new version of the code, you would update/tweak
the build instructions and let the build system package it for multiple
systems for you.

 
> 3. The expectations of developers about how multiple versions of
>     NUnit should co-exist on Linux and Windows are somewhat
>     different. In Windows, it's all xcopy deployment without use
>     of the GAC. In Linux, Mono apps seem to be placed in the
>     GAC quite freely - my observation, anyway - and placed
>     there in a way that makes side-by-side installation difficult.
>     [I don't think the last is a technical issue, but rather one
>     of different communities expecting different things to work.]

I do not think that applications go into the GAC.

I assume that NUnit goes into the GAC?   The GAC would allow for
side-by-side installation, if you want to provide different "developer"
experiences for each version, all you have to do is:

	* Pass a version to gacutil using the /package flag, for
	  example:

		gacutil /package nunit-2.4 NUnit.dll

	  This will put a new compiler directory
	  in mono/lib/nunit-2.4 and put symlinks in there to
	  the gac.

	* Provide a pkg-config file for each version, so that 
	  you can do:

		mcs -pkg:nunit-2.4 file.cs

Miguel

>         From: mono-list-bounces at lists.ximian.com
>         [mailto:mono-list-bounces at lists.ximian.com] On Behalf Of
>         Miguel De Icaza
>         Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2008 10:12 AM
>         To: Michael Franz
>         Cc: mono-list at lists.ximian.com
>         Subject: SPAM-LOW: Re: [Mono-list] NUnit Version - Upgrade
>         soon?
>         
>         
>         
>         Hello, 
>         > Is it ok to submit patches to mono that depend on the latest
>         > version of NUnit?
>         
>         
>         As long as the resulting code *builds* you can.  
>         
>         
>         So I think this means "no".
>         
>         
>         Miguel.
>         
>         > 
>         > Michael
>         > 
>         > On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 3:25 PM, Miguel de Icaza
>         > <miguel at novell.com> wrote:
>         >         Hello,
>         >         
>         >         > What changes to NUnit were specific to Mono?
>         >         >
>         >         > Is there a list of these features?
>         >         
>         >         
>         >         You are confused;   There are no changes, you should
>         >         just not depend on
>         >         Mono's built-in and private copy of NUnit to write
>         >         your NUnit test
>         >         cases.
>         >         
>         >         You should get the latest NUnit.
>         >         
>         >         
>         >         > On Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 10:54 PM, Miguel de Icaza
>         >         <miguel at novell.com>
>         >         > wrote:
>         >         >         Hello,
>         >         >
>         >         >
>         >         >         > I use NUnit for work and have been using
>         >         the latest version
>         >         >         for
>         >         >         > months.  I wrote some test for Mono and
>         >         found out that the
>         >         >         version
>         >         >         > that Mono is using does not support some
>         >         of the asserts I am
>         >         >         using
>         >         >         > (IsEmpty).  Is there any plan to upgrade
>         >         the version of
>         >         >         NUnit that is
>         >         >         > used with the Mono build/test?
>         >         >
>         >         >
>         >         >         The NUnit that ships with Mono should be
>         >         considered Mono's own
>         >         >         copy of
>         >         >         NUnit and not a public version of it.
>         >         >
>         >         >         We should probably make packages of the
>         >         latest version of
>         >         >         NUnit,
>         >         >         encourage the NUnit developer to maintain
>         >         those and encourage
>         >         >         developers
>         >         >         to use the public NUnit as opposed to the
>         >         private copy that
>         >         >         Mono ships.
>         >         >
>         >         >
>         >         
>         >         
>         > 
>         
>