There are just some things that *must* be open source. I usually find it’s the automated utility type software. Compilers, browsers, email clients, communication tools: they must just work and if they don’t. Uninstall, install something else. 🙂
But when it comes to software that automates tasks, and in my environment that includes mostly Nant, you can NOT have a black box. And no surprise, there really isn’t a black box alternative worth paying for. NUnit is my another automation machine.
These automation frameworks can be used in so many different ways that to NOT have the source code is just limiting yourself to all sorts of possibilities, the least of which is:
i..quick bug fixes not in main branch
ii.added functionality due to “custom” requirements [circumstances]
Like today for example. is NUnit 2.2.8 backwards compatible with test case method names [first four letters == ‘test’]? Documentation says yes, but i beg to differ…
modified Oct 05: as of 2.2.1 this compatibility was dropped but the documentation remains outdated.. now where has this debate surfaced before 🙂
Now to have your entire migration process bottlenecked by something silly like that… 🙂