[wp-testers] Nightly Builds/WinZip Replacement

Roy Schestowitz wp-lowtraffic at schestowitz.com
Fri Jan 13 04:19:59 GMT 2006


_____/ On Thu 12 Jan 2006 23:53:14 GMT, [Owen Winkler] wrote : \_____

> Achton N. Netherclift wrote:
>> tsykoduk wrote:
>>> [...] but why exclude folks who don't know what a tarball is? Does 
>>> it really take that much longer to create a zipfile as well as a 
>>> tarball? If wordpress was only aimed at sysadmins or other console 
>>> jockeys, then I could see not having the zips, but as it stands, 
>>> keep both.


I used to feel the same way, but... [see below]


>> I think it's been said before, but I'll just repeat for good 
>> measure. This is regarding the *nightlies/alphas*, not the actual 
>> WP-releases. As such, IMHO, if you deem yourself experienced (and 
>> adventurous) enough to use the nightlies, you should be able to 
>> figure out a solution for this problem without asking the WP devs to 
>> supply us with more bandwidth, diskspace, etc.
>
> I wrote this elsewhere, earlier:
>
> It is a bad idea to restrict nightlies based on someone's knowledge 
> of extracting files from archives.
>
> Fundamentally, you do not need to know how to extract archives to do 
> anything with WordPress other than access the files for installation. 
> (Release versions are available in zip format too, after all.)  
> Knowing how to extract an archive also does not guarantee any 
> inherent knowledge that would be helpful for testing or coding 
> WordPress.
>
> In fact, such a barrier may limit the kinds of users that might be 
> useful to have test WordPress.  Willing users who are competent 
> enough to upload files to their servers and provide bug reports are 
> valuable. Using archive types that provide those users with a lower 
> barrier of entry is a good thing.
>
> If you want to prevent casual users from using nightlies, a better 
> barrier would be to allow download of nightlies only by users who are 
> logged into Trac.  At least then they would know where to file a bug 
> report, which is a prerequisite for using a nightly for testing.


A good point is made here since users sometimes come to the forums/lists,
then ask questions rather than report bugs they are experiencing with betas
and nightlies. Some are very fundamental questions.

Roy



More information about the wp-testers mailing list