[U-Boot] livetime of boards

[Wolfgang Denk <wd@denx.de>]

Dear Tom,

In message <20131107133159.GR5925@bill-the-cat> you wrote:
> 
> I feel this is the hard part of the problem, and what we're glossing
> over.  What has to be tested by the board maintainer?  What are we going
> to leave to their discretion?  Will am335x_evm not count if I don't dig
> up the NOR cape for it?

Good question.  Eventually this is something that develops over time.

Intially, we might be satisfied with a very basic "it works" message,
which may just mean that this specific version booted on the actual
hardware.

In the long run, we might provide a more detailed questionaire to the
reported.  I could for example imagine a tool that parses the board's
config file and then provides some checkboxes - if there is NOR flash
configured on the board, ask if NOR has been tested; similar for
network, MMC, USB, ... other features.

One day we might even have more developers using automatic test tools
so we could generate information on a per-command base.

I know that I'm just dreaming, but we should try to just be open for
any such future extensions, even if we start really small now.

I think we all agree that _any_ kind of test information will be
better than none.

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd at denx.de
You see things; and you say ``Why?'' But I dream  things  that  never
were; and I say ``Why not?''
       - George Bernard Shaw _Back to Methuselah_ (1921) pt. 1, act 1