Hi,
Currently ALSA is a trial use module for LSB (http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/lsb) 4.0 and it is the intention to make ALSA mandatory with the LSB 4.1 release targeted for Q1 2010. One of the requirements of a mandatory module is the existence of a test suite for the module that covers a good chunk of the interfaces provided by the LSB spec. An initial exploratory look at the existing test cases showed that tests appear to be tied to hardware drivers and are interactive.
Is this initial impression correct?
_From an LSB testing perspective, interface testing is very important; i.e. I call the interface with the arguments required and I get the expected result back. Further the tests need to run in an automated fashion and produce a certain output (automated processing). The output can be created by retrofitting existing tests or by specifically writing tests within the LSB test framework.
IMHO it would be best to have tests that are useful to both, the project and the LSB and in a best case scenario we wouldn't have to start over as the existing tests already cover a good part of the interface.
With this as background there are a few questions that have been raised while discussing this during LSB workgroup sessions.
1.) Is there interest from the community side to participate in this effort and accept patches? 2.) Is it reasonable to expect that the existing tests can be used in some way by using a dummy sound device or a sound loop device to verify output? One requirement for LSB testing is that a test has only two states, pass or fail, and a recovery or try again mode is not supported. Further a test must pass or fail. 3.) Would the community be more comfortable if this is an effort that creates new tests separate from the existing HW focused tests? 4.) Is anyone interested in helping with this effort, writing tests, answering questions about ALSA for those not familiar with the interface and or sound in general?
Comments, thoughts, etc. are much appreciated.
Thanks, Robert