Two days down, two to go.

The Perl QA Hackathon for 2016 is being held in Rugby. We are now half way though. This is the first year in quite a few when I haven't come to the event with Devel::Cover failing tests against the imminent new Perl release, and this has given me a little more time to concentrate on other matters.

A large part of the value of the QA hackathon is in the discussions that take place when people can sit together and thrash something out, or bounce ideas off each other. I have been able have a number of interesting discussions, some relating to things I brought with me, and others arising because of ideas others have had.

I have had discussions with Leo Lapworth about making cpancover.com more robust, and we have various short-term and longer-term plans there.

I have talked to Olaf Alders about integrating metacpan.com and cpancover.com more tightly, and we have a plan to make that happen.

I have discussed the possibility of uploading test coverage data from CPAN::Reporter with Breno G. de Oliveira, both to the metabase and to cpancover.com.

I have thought about making cpancover.com more dynamic, and better displaying the available data (for example showing coverage changes over time), and discussed this somewhat with both Leo and Breno.

I have heard separately from both Tim Bunce and Sawyer X about a desire to get coverage data without as much overhead as Devel::Cover currently imposes, and have some avenues to pursue there.

I have discussed packaging with Saywer X and, in particular, his recent work in this area.

All these discussions have left me with more on my TODO list than I came with, but such is the nature, and the value, of the QA Hackathon.

I have, however, managed to find a little time to make a module out of some code I had to run Selenium IDE tests without the IDE, and first release of that has hit CPAN. It still needs some documentation and tests, but I have released early and hope to release often.

I've also enjoyed an authentic Balti (courtesy of Perl Careers), had a couple of full English breakfasts, and eaten more strawberries than may have been wise (thanks Wendy).

And before heading off to the pub across the road this evening, Rik was presented with a silver camel and some other goodies to say thanks for the five truly wonderful years over which he has guided Perl development. Thanks Rik!

And many, many thanks to all the sponsors without whom this important event could not take place: