Subplot → blog → 2020 → 11 → 07 → Iteration planning meeting: November 7th

What has happened?

We met with Lars’s co-worker Ahmon earlier this week. Lars had taken notes of the chat, and we discussed them at this meeting. We filed Subplot issue 116. We agreed that we need a few putative scenarios for “assuming” scenarios, and that we need to experiment with various approaches (Subplot issue 20).

We also discussed a hypothetical USING keyword, but didn’t settle on an approach on that either, yet, except we think it and “ASSUMING” should use the same approach. We might add a new block type “meta” where ASSUMING and USING and other meta data about scenarios would go.

This all needs further discussion.

We finished Subplot milestone 16, completing Subplot issue 93 and Subplot issue 104. We discussed the issues that weren’t completed:

No progress was made on the following: Subplot issue 20, Subplot issue 74, Subplot issue 102, Subplot issue 107.

We closed Subplot milestone 16 and created Subplot milestone 17, with issues

  • Subplot issue 20: continue discussion about ASSUMING, create scenarios that need it in different way.
  • Subplot issue 74: Lars to add support for user to specify environment variables when running the generated test program.
  • Subplot issue 96: Lars to investigate contexts in anyhow, and using that to provide information on where error happens.
  • Subplot issue 100: Lars to update the MR based on feedback, then ping Daniel.
  • Subplot issue 101: Daniel to create a single-file template for Rust test programs. Doesn’t need to be very complete, or even have contexts, but should have something so we get this moving.
  • Subplot issue 102: Carried over.
  • Subplot issue 107: Carried over.
  • Subplot issue 108: Carried over. Blocked on Subplot issue 115.
  • Subplot issue 111: Lars to set up a cron job to mirror from gitlab to git.liw.fi sufficiently frequently.
  • Subplot issue 114: Lars to add a pandoc-citeproc dependency.
  • Subplot issue 115: Lars to find out what breaks and why, and to submit a fix if possible.
  • Subplot issue 116: Daniel to update documentation to explain the Gherkin-like language in a clearer way.

Review

Outstanding MRs: Subplot merge request 93: Daniel has a suggestion, Lars will implement.

Discussion

Others using Subplot: we need to improve documentation, and fix Subplot issue 116 at least. We could do a trial where we watch a willing volunteer use Subplot: a shared screen, screen, probably recorded for our use (but not made public), using the Python template and Context, to implement some subplot that’s realistic, but not tiresome. Subplot issue 117, Subplot issue 118.

Getting Subplot into Debian: Initial Debian freeze happening early January. We are not ready to support the version of Subplot we will have then for years. We are, however, about ready for Subplot to be in Debian unstable. Subplot issue 119

Daniel and Lars are both happy to support and mentor Dan to work on Subplot and help him maintain momentum on contributing.