invisible desktops - major pain in the testing process

[Ferenc Wagner]

"Dmitry Timoshkov" <dmitry at baikal.ru> writes:

> "Ferenc Wagner" <wferi at afavant.elte.hu> wrote:
>
>> I was under the impression that most of the tests are
>> independent of desktop visibility.
>
> Not really. Any API which directly or indirectly creates
> windows or uses GDI is affected by the desktop visibility.

Roughly checking the latest results shows that the following
tests are affected seriously by desktop visibility:

ddraw:ddrawmodes
gdi32:metafile
ntdll:reg
user32:input
user32:msg
user32:sysparams

Some pretty important ones, I agree, but hardly a majority.

> Also, as I already pointed out, Wine doesn't run in that
> mode at all, so we can't compare apples to apples in that
> case.

You are absolutely right in the cases where it makes any
difference (more than the above list)

> And the apps most of the developers/users care about
> should be run on a visible desktop anyway.

Yes.  I don't argue that testing on a visible desktop is a
must.  Some people are actually doing that, it seems.  Or
maybe that's just you alone... :)  Anyway, I tried to make
such results visually distinctive so that we shouldn't drop
all the rest.  Too bad it doesn't work.

> figuring out why it doesn't work is completely useless
> IMO, since the results of the tests running on an
> invisible desktop can't be used for a reasonable
> comparison.

I see your point, even if find it a bit strong.  Ivan's
suggestion is nice, but that requires a probably not so
trivial change in winrash.  I wonder if Chris will do it.

>> And the winrash service is the only way to get several
>> reports quickly for a new test.
>
> Why? What prevents someone to run the tests manually in
> interactive mode once a day?

Nothing.  Somebody is actually doing it for NT4, 2000 and
XP.  I did it now and then for Win98, but this one can't
really be told apart from the invisible ones (not
considering error counts).  From http://winehq.org/site/janitorial:

    Volunteers who will run the tests their Windows platform
    of choice on a regular basis so that we quickly fix
    incorrect tests
    
        * Win95: Michael Stefaniuc, Fabian Cenedese
        * Win98: Tony Lambregts, Jeff Smith (SE)
        * WinNT: Luke Stras
        * WinME: James K Whiting
        * Win2k: Tom Wickline, Kye Lewis
        * WinXP: David Miller, Kye Lewis 

> If that someone can't or won't do it, then we have to find
> another someone. I'm pretty sure that there are enough not
> lazy people wishing to help we could to choose from.

OK.
-- 
Feri.