BUILD and devel/STATUS files need cleanup

[Hal Murray]

esr at thyrsus.com said:
> Presently we have build status information in two files: BUILD (for the Mac)
> and devel/STATUS (all other tested builds).  We also have a buildbot page
> that has up-to-the minute info on which builds are currently good. 

I think you mean INSTALL rather than BUILD.


> 1. If we're going to have static build-status information, it should live in
>    one file rather than two different ones. 

Maybe.  (devil's advocate hat on)  The stuff in INSTALL tells you what you 
have to do to build it for various environments.  With STATUS, I was trying 
to collect the matrix of feature vs environment.  Yes, there is an 
interaction with how you build and what works.


> 2. Somebody who is willing to own the static status information (on previous
>    discussion, probably Hal) needs to think hard about whether that page
>    should live in the source tree or the project website.  I don't have
>    a strong opinion about this but think the tradeoffs should be considered.

I think we need a download web page that has a section for each supported 
version with links to tarballs, documentation, and the git magic.  A status 
link would go well there.


>    I'm trying to get us into an all-asciidoc-all-the-time habit for two
> reasons:
>    (1) so the in-tree documentation is uniform and easy to browse, and (2)
> so
>    that we have options to generate nice web content from it automatically
>    (though the logic for that is not yet in place). 

My brain doesn't think in asciidoc.  It's possible for web stuff to show 
raw-text pages.


> 4. Somebody (not me, I don't want to spend the concentration) needs to think
>    carefully about the relationship between the static build-status info
>    and the buildbot reports.  Is there any way to attach quirk notes to
>    each buildbot build? If so, can the static build-status info go away?
>    If not, what else can we do to reduce duplication and handwork? 

buildbot doesn't know if the code works.  We need to collect that info 
someplace.  I'm assuming that the works-status will change slowly (at least 
in the negative direction).  If something breaks it will get fixed quickly.



-- 
These are my opinions.  I hate spam.