[boost] [test] Applying outstanding pull requests to develop and schedule merge of develop to master

Subject: [boost] [test] Applying outstanding pull requests to develop and schedule merge of develop to master
From: Jamie Allsop (ja11sop_at_[hidden])
Date: 2014-12-11 11:28:55

Some time ago (more than 2 years) I submitted a set of four 
complimentary patches for Boost.Test of which one was partially applied. 
The tickets are:

* Test Units (Cases and Suites) in Boost.Test do not capture __FILE__ 
and __LINE__ at declaration point making it impossible to provide source 
file linking using external test management tools
https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/7410
(modified patch applied)

* Boost.Test, since boost 1.48 is using the deprecated Boost.Timer class 
- it should be updated to use the new class
https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/7397
https://github.com/boostorg/test/pull/15

* Detailed test status is not available in the Boost.Test log (status, 
assertions, passed) and so live test case status cannot be tracked
https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/7417
https://github.com/boostorg/test/pull/16

* Support multiple calls to framework::init() allowing wrappers to 
support running tests using test tools in full systems
https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/ticket/7419
https://github.com/boostorg/test/pull/17

I've updated and resubmitted patches on more than one occasion and also 
variously created patches against (the now) develop and master so I can 
actually apply them for myself for each new boost version.

Now, the reason for my post is two-fold.

First - I'd like to see these patches applied. They cause no user 
impacts and simply (a) fix broken functionality and (b) *significantly* 
improve the usefulness of Boost.Test. I am more than happy to help with 
maintaining Boost.Test since we rely on it heavily and I believe, on the 
whole it is a good library.

Second - it is about time we formulated a schedule for merging develop 
into master for Boost.Test. Otherwise all the patches in the world are 
simply pointless. The patches I've submitted, like others will never see 
the light of day even if they are applied because develop is very 
different than master and it looks like a merge may never happen. It 
should be noted that for my patches I have a completely different set 
that I apply to an actual Boost release because of the large differences 
between the two branches.

To recap - it is time to start actively shepherding patches into 
Boost.Test develop, but more importantly, it is time we started looking 
at a schedule for merging Boost.Test develop to master. The longer it is 
left the worse the impact will be. A lot of good work has been done on 
develop - the longer it stays there the more people will move away from 
Boost.Test in their own code and it will only have relevance to Boost 
libraries themselves.

Jamie