[Lazarus] How to proceed in a case like this?

[Reinier Olislagers]

On 7-4-2013 18:05, "Arí Ricardo Ody" wrote:
> I develop, 2 years ago, a program to run in windows mobile(WinCE Lazarus
> version) and it is ok in Lazarus 0.9.30.
> 
> When I try to migrate this WinCE program to Lazarus 1.0.6 I discovered
> that the resize of the screen after calls to dialogs like MessagDlg is
> in trouble. Talking with some people about this, I discovered that
> sometime someone(names are not important) made a wrong code alteration
> in the routine that do the screen resize. During the tests this person
> didn't use full screen and didn't detect the error. It seems that it is
> an error of the complex solution and I have no expertise to try correct it.
> 
> Based on this I don't know what do I do, since Lazarus is a free tool.
> The bug was still was reported.
> 
> Do someone of you have a suggestion? Honestly I don't know how to
> proceed. I can migrate the programs that run on ms-windows to 1.0.8 and
> later versions, but the WinCE version will remain in a out of date version.

The blunt answer I would have is that there need to be
1. tests that test GUI and non GUI behaviour (the latter are easier -
like fpc's dbtestframework and the compiler tests)
2. the non GUI tests should be run and periodically verified. If you
depend on features, run the test set before developing with that version
3. the GUI tests will likewise need to be run and checked - AFAIU there
are some solutions that try to automate this process; otherwise it needs
to be done manually.

Instead of those tests you could of course also test your program
compiled with the new version.

Then we come to the problem right now: you could keep a patch to 1.0.8
that restores the earlier code.
Graeme will probably jump in here and mention that he does so with a
custom git repository. Mercurial/hg also allows this; I don't think
subversion does.

Finally, how to get rid of this maintenance burden/problem? You could
consider to open a bounty (there's a wiki page on the Lazarus wiki) to
get that solved...

Regards,
Reinier