pyjamas 0.8.1 - help requested for testing to reach stable release

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

hi folks, got a small favour to ask of the python community - or, more
specifically, i feel compelled to alert the python community to "a
need" with which you may be able to help: we're due for another
release, and it's becoming an increasingly-large task.

given the number of examples requiring testing (75+) the number of
browsers (15+) and desktop engines (3 so far, on 3 different OSes)
that pyjamas supports is just... overwhelming for any one individual
to even contemplate tackling.  for the pyjamas 0.6 release, for
example, i spent three weeks straight, just doing testing.  from that
experience i decided to set a rule, which is very straightforward: ask
for help in testing, set a (reasonably firm) deadline for a release
date, and then whatever has been tested by contributors by that time,
that becomes the stable release.

thus, in this way, the community receives a stable release that is of
the quality that the *community* requires.  the list of platforms
tested already is quite long: however it's not long _enough_!  and,
also, on each task, there needs to be many more examples actually
tested.

here's what's been done so far:
http://code.google.com/p/pyjamas/issues/list?can=2&q=milestone=Release0.8.1

we need more testing on opera, more testing on safari, more versions
of firefox - more of everything basically!

so, this is basically more of a "notification" than it is anything
else, that if you'd like to help with the responsible task of ensuring
that a python compiler and GUI toolkit has a release that the python
community can be proud of, that i'm placing that responsibility
directly into your hands: i'm just the gatekeeper, here.

lastly, i'd like to leave you with this thought.  i am doing a web
site for a client (a general-purpose content management system which
will be released as free software at some stage).  the user management
roles are stored as a comma-separated list in the database
(kirbybase).  i needed to split the string back into a list, and
before i knew it i had typed this:

    import string
    roles = map(string.strip, user['roles'].split(","))

what struck me was that, although i've been working with pyjamas for
over three years, it _still_ had me doing a double-take that this is
*python*, yet this will end up running in *javascript* in the actual
web site.  the level of pain and awkwardness that would need to be
gone through in order to do the same operation in javascript, and
being completely unable to actually test and develop with confidence
under pyjd directly at the python interpreter, i just... i can't
imagine ever going back to that.

and that's just... fricking awesome, but it highlights and underscores
that there's a real reason why pyjamas is worthwhile helping out with
(and using).  you *do not* have to learn javascript, yet can still
create comprehensive web sites that will work across all modern web
browsers... *if* they're tested properly :)

ok enough.

thanks folks.

l.