immediate software feedback

[Joseph Blaylock]

> Automated unit testing seems like it should work nicely with 'make';
> each compilation unit should have a test-results file which can be
> regenerated by make every time that compilation unit changes.  This
> should make it possible to get subsecond feedback for most changes.

	I was considering how this could be used in Perl, since that's
the language I spend most of my time in right now, and the thought
occurred to me that I could simply use the -c flag and make the code
executable before I start writing anything, and then do something
similar - it executes the program every foo seconds and if it complains,
tells me, and if it doesn't, tells me.  This is a very neat sounding
thing.

	What I would like to implement, too, though would be multihost
message passing for something like this.  Most of my developement is
inside ssh windows on a remote server - it would be nice if that server
could trigger events (relatively securely) on my local machine.  For
example, to tell me a compilation is finished, a job is through, or to
give me status changes - like these color shifts.

	Setting up .shosts files could be useful here; allowing remote
execution of arbitrary binaries from trusted hosts.  I could script the
ssh command line and on the remote host I could "make && playdone ||
playbroken" or something like that, and have it tell me on my machine
whether it's done or broken.  

	I don't know how useful this would be to other people though.

		---joe