Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att-cb!att-ih!ihnp4!cbmvax!ulowell!page
From: page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: The USENET Seal of Approval
Message-ID: <5329@swan.ulowell.edu>
Date: 8 Mar 88 20:22:50 GMT
References: <1002@sbcs.sunysb.edu> <1529@sugar.UUCP>
Reply-To: page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page)
Organization: University of Lowell, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 44

karl@sugar.UUCP (Karl Lehenbauer) wrote:
>What I'm thinking here is that maybe Commodore could do some similar
>thing, giving the "Commodore well behaved seal of approval" to programs
>that had passed some kind of test suite.

Well, CBM won't do this (in my opinion), but it's a GREAT idea.

USENET is probably the largest Amiga user group in the world.  By
Brian Reid's estimate, there are over 13,000 readers of this group
alone.  That's not counting articles reposted to other networks,
bulletin boards, newsletters, etc.

We can (and should) do something with this.  One thing is to provide
products a "USENET seal of approval," which means the product passed
all the tests specified.  Since there are a lot of packages around,
and a lot of people with a lot of different configurations, this
should be easy to do.

What would it take?  Somebody needs to coordinate the testing, by
identifying people with unique configurations and/or specialists
in particular fields (like performance analysis, user interface, etc).
It also requires that manufacturers desire this testing be done on
their products, and that they be willing to provide some number of
copies to the testers.

In return, they get to use the "USENET seal of approval" in their
advertisements.  Given enough serious tests, this can easily become
something that manufactures desire, as it will show them problems with
their program (great for beta-testing) and will become the standard by
which all other programs are tested.  End-users will be assured that
the package works on their configuration and is otherwise well-behaved.

I think the coordination of this could take a lot of work.  I really
like the idea, and have a LOT of items that can be tested (I've been
keeping a list for some time now; I knew it would come in handy some
day), but don't know if I have the time to coordinate the testing and
dealing with the vendors.

Comments?

..Bob
-- 
Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept.  page@swan.ulowell.edu  ulowell!page
"I don't know such stuff.  I just do eyes."  -- from 'Blade Runner'