Re: Is Unicorn still alive ?

Hi,

Stéphane Roucheray a écrit :
> As part of the automatic validation process, I'd 
> like to use the W3C validators (markup, css and link checker). I was 
> looking at downloading each validators in order to install them when I 
> remember there was this project : Unicorn.

Note that Unicorn doesn't include any validator (it only automates 
requests to them), so if you don't want to use the online validators, 
you'll still have to download them and setup Unicorn to use them.

> I saw in the sources via the Web CVS Browser that there is still 
> activity on this project while the site references are quit old (Unicorn 
> Home page was apparently last updated a year ago...).
> 
> I'd like to know if the Unicorn project is still alive and if it is 
> usable in production mode ?

Yes, Unicorn is still alive. Two interns have been working on it 
recently (and one is still). They have done a lot of work on the 
tasklist part, rewriting the spec 
(http://www.w3.org/QA/Tools/Unicorn/tasks/) and all the related code for 
it to be more flexible and powerful.

The CVS repository is currently a bit messy and head is unlikely to work 
as debugging/testing is ongoing (will be cleaned by the end of the month).
You should be able to download a previous version (~4 months ago [[cvs 
checkout -D "4 months ago" 2006/unicorn]]). This version mostly works, 
but don't forget that Unicorn is still in alpha version, so you might 
encounter bugs (and feel free to report them either on 
http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/buglist.cgi?product=Unicorn or the 
dedicated mailing list public-unicorn@w3.org). Unicorn is usable, but 
for production, I would add "use at your own risk".

> PS : The only way to download Unicorn seems to be via CVS but the 
> anonymous access does not work. I already sent a mail to the W3C Webmaster.

Odd, I downloaded it fine a few minutes ago with the following commands:
[[
bash$ export CVSROOT=":pserver:anonymous@dev.w3.org:/sources/public"
bash$ cvs login
(Logging in to anonymous@dev.w3.org)
CVS password: anonymous
bash$ cvs checkout -D "6 months ago" 2006/unicorn
]]
Perhaps it was a transient issue.

Regards,
Jean-Gui

Received on Monday, 8 September 2008 12:50:19 UTC