Yesterday was the first day of the QA Hackathon in Rugby, UK. The first item on the agenda was a discussion about Test2 going stable. This blog post will cover the important points of that discussion.

For the impatient, here is a summary:

Test2 is going to be part of the Test-Simple dist. It will not be a standalone dist.

The next stable Test-Simple release will include Test2 and a Test::Builder that runs on Test2.

The release date for the next stable Test-Simple, which includes Test2, will be no sooner than Friday May 6'th, which is our planned release date.

The QAH discussion focused around a single question: "What is the best path forward for Test::Builder when we consider both end-users and test tool authors?"

Arguments for updating Test::Builder to use Test2:

It avoids the need to split the testing ecosystem in two, with every Test:: module forked into a Test::Builder and Test2 version.

It reduces the number of possible configurations to maintain and test. Some of these configurations were known to be problematic.

Arguments for keeping Test2 and Test::Builder separate:

We are changing things out from under people, the only way to opt-out is to not upgrade.

Darkpan is a black box, we cannot predict potential breakages.

There are a small number of cpan modules we know will break

When the room came to a vote the result was overwhelmingly in favor of updating Test::Builder.

The discussion also resulted in a few action items that prevent a stable release during the QAH:

Test2 will be integrated into the Test-Simple distribution

A test will run that reports any modules that are broken, or need to be updated as a result of the Test2 upgrade.

Test2 will have a post-testing check that warns you if you have a Test2/Test::Builder version mismatch.

Test2 will have a post-testing check that warns you about any known-broken module versions loaded during testing (but only if the tests failed).

These are important action items that help to alleviate the concerns of those who were against updating Test::Builder. All of these items are now done, and a dev release has been uploaded to cpan. Assuming the dev release does not find any show-stopping bugs it will be released as stable no sooner than Friday May 6th which is the planned release date.

Thank you to DreamHost for sending me to the QAH!