Xmos Software-components Quality

New to XMOS and XCore? Get started here.
Post Reply
User avatar
Folknology
XCore Legend
Posts: 1274
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2009 10:20 pm
Contact:

Xmos Software-components Quality

Post by Folknology »

I have some Issues with the software components that Xmos provide:

1. Complete lack of documentation for the examples provided
2. I am fairly confident that some of these examples are not tested before posting
3. Why do I still have to register every time I want to download
4. The licensing on these examples still hasn't been sorted and unified

I have issues currently with one of these examples as I posted here but its not my first brush with the troubled examples. I seem to have wasted inordinate amounts of time with some of these examples to the point of pulling my hair out!!

So I would like to see a concerted effort by Xmos to improve this situation and hence improve developer experience with Xmos products in the future, with that in mind I have thus started this thread with a few suggestions to kick things off:

1. Every example should have a wikipage on the Xcore Exchange wiki for the purpose or documenting each example.
2. Every example placed in the software examples area should be tested with each current version of the Xmos toolset as they are released. If there are issues with any versions this should be documented in a matrix (table) on the appropriate example wiki page.
3. In order to help the above (2) we may also benefit from an XC test suite maybe extend Unity or some other simple test framework. Obviously testing is very complex with IO but the examples should at least be manually tested with the current Xmos development boards, as well as some basic unit testing. Some how we need to set a quality standard that can be relied upon.
4. Lets make the downloads really simple, maybe just add them to them to the wiki, that way when we are logged into Xcore Exchange we can just download them without the extra processing steps required on the current scheme (registration etc..).
5. Please can Xmos sort out the licensing on the code examples we seem to have been waiting eons for this to happen references here :
http://xcore.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=474&hilit=licence
http://xcore.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=452
6. What would be really great is for Xmos to create a coporate Github account and place the source code there. If money is an issue they offer free accounts for opensource code which would be perfect for the examples. This would allow developers to test, explore and improve the examples.

Can we do this, who else has ideas to streamline the examples, lets get it sorted..


User avatar
Berni
Respected Member
Posts: 363
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2009 10:17 pm
Contact:

Post by Berni »

Well i got used to just trying not to use the examples and write my own.
User avatar
Joerg
Member++
Posts: 27
Joined: Wed Jan 27, 2010 7:07 am

Post by Joerg »

Hi Folknology,

thanks for this well thought out and constructive feedback about both the quality and accessibility of the XMOS software components.

We are currently taking steps to increase the quality of the software components provided on xmos.com, if anybody else has additional comments and input, now is the time to speak up - please let us know either publicly through the forum or in a private message, whatever works best for you.

Regarding the accessibility of the comments:
Folknology wrote: 4. Lets make the downloads really simple, maybe just add them to them to the wiki, that way when we are logged into Xcore Exchange we can just download them without the extra processing steps required on the current scheme (registration etc..).
Easy downloads combined with a personalized way of keeping track of information on the XMOS web site is in the works. Give it another 4-6 weeks and hopefully this issue will be solved, along with much better overall, user specific information management.
Folknology wrote: 5. Please can Xmos sort out the licensing on the code examples we seem to have been waiting eons for this to happen references here :
http://xcore.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=474&hilit=licence
http://xcore.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=452
From a download perspective, this should be resolved.
We streamlined (and simplified) the license agreements on the web site - licenses for software components, hardware designs and the development environment should be consistent now and should address the points raised in the quoted forum threads. Can you please check and let us know you still see issues with the download licenses?
The issues with the license agreements embedded in the software components itself aren't fully resolved yet, as it requires a re-release of the components.
Folknology wrote: Can we do this, who else has ideas to streamline the examples, lets get it sorted..
Yes - any additional ideas, please let us know!

Thanks

Joerg
Post Reply