Dear Squeakers,

we, the Squeak community, are aiming to do a new release soon.  To ensure as high a quality release as possible we'd like to test it adequately.  This implies testing across all supported platforms, and possibly on some unsupported ones too. :-)  While we have a fairly strong test suite, it does not cover all areas of the system, and not all tests are included such as FFI tests are in its separate package. And of course currently we have about 100 expected failures, 40 unexpected failures, and 10 errors in the base test suite. 

So we, the board, would like

  - volunteers to offer to TEST PLATFORMS, different versions of Windows, Raspberry Pi, the many flavors of Linux, etc.  Once we have a release candidate we will want to do a clean install on the platform and then run tests.
  - the community to develop a set of TEST PLANS for testing those parts of the system not tested by the test suite
  - a REVIEW of the test failures and errors. Are any obsolete? Are any platform-specific? Can we triage them into those that are tractable with little effort, those that are tractable with a lot of effort, those that are insoluble, etc...? Of the expected failures, which are due to fixable bugs, fundamental limitations, etc?

So, the data we need to collect includes volunteers, a platform matrix, test plans, and reviews of existing failures and errors.

***

To complement Squeak's automated tests, we want to create a MANUAL TEST PLAN. Such a manual plan can be used by any volunteering Squeaker to put any upcoming release "to the acid test." ;-) As a result, our release process gets more robust, and the final release artifact can become of higher quality.

As a first step, we want YOU to write down some frequent interactions that you do on a regular basis. You know, things like "I do always do this when adding a class" or "I really need this to do my taxes". It may be a keyboard shortcut, a familiar entry in the world menu, or that lovely button in the upper right corner of tool so-and-so. We want to know!

How does it work? Well, we want to guide you a little bit so that things do not get out of hand ... content-wise. ;-) Here are the rules:

1) Give that interaction a name (or title) to express the goal you want to achieve.
2) Briefly describe the starting context. Is the world empty?
3) Divide that interaction into no more than 5 steps so that everybody can click or push his or her way through the Squeak image as quickly as possible.
4) Briefly add some details about the things you should now see or experience.

Here is an example:

GOAL: "I want to calculate 3+4 in Squeak."
CONTEXT: "The world is empty."
STEPS
 - Left click into the world, a menu should appear.
 - Choose "workspace" from the upper items in the menu.
 - A workspace window appears, and I click into it's text area.
 - I type "3+7" and hit [CMD]+[P].
RESULT: "I see a 7."

Our idea is to generalize and summarize the most common interactions into a manual test plan for everybody to play around with and report back to the list. When you create a new test, please send it to the list by replying to this email thread. :-)

Best,
Marcel
(for the Squeak Oversight Board)
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