Re: [Gnumed-devel] GNUmed 0.1 preparation

[Tim Churches]

Karsten Hilbert wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 18, 2005 at 06:44:34PM +0800, Syan Tan wrote:
> 
> 
>>why is it difficult to make up a windows  package if 
>>it's just the client ? 
> 
> Assume that a certain Python expression exposes two
> behavioural properties on Linux. Then assume the same
> expression exposes one property on Windows only. If you
> developed on Linux and happened to test for the non-shared
> property you'll only ever find the problem once you start
> testing on Windows.
> 
> To make a long story short: Certain quirks get exposed only
> now because no one has yet bothered to test on Windows.
> 
> It isn't hard. It just delays the release.

If GNUmed imports and uses the os module anywhere, then you need to test
thoroughly on all platforms. Also if it does any interaction with or
manipulation of the file system, you need to test carefully on all
platforms, because there are significant differences in the way POSIX
and MS-Windows systems copy, delete and move files and directories. At
least that's what we have found in our attempts so far to port NetEpi
Case Manager to MS-Windows. However, pure Python code seems perfectly
portable (except for some border cases for numeric computations, but
GNUmed is unlikely to contain any of those, nor does NetEpi Case Manager).

Tim C