tools.wmflabs.org is supposed to be the replacement for the toolserver which the wmf is basically forcefully shutting down. I started the migration several months ago but got fed up with the difficulties and stopped. In the last month I have moved most of my tools to labs, and I have discovered that there are some serious issues that need addressed.
The toolserver was a fairly stable environment. I checked my primary host I connect to and it has been up for 4 months with continuous operations.
tools however is being treated like the red-headed step child. According to the people in charge of labs they dont care about ensuring stability and that if stuff breaks Oh well well get to it when we can. They say that tools is not a production service so we really don't give a <>, if it breaks it breaks, we will fix it when we can but since its not production its not a priority.
One good example of this is that a tool cannot connect to tools.wmflabs.orgdue to a host configuration issue. This is a known bug, we have a way of fixing it, but its still not implemented
Given that tools is replacing the toolserver I would expect at worst labs is just as good, however what I am seeing and hearing is that the wmf is throwing away one of their best assets, and driving away a lot of developers due to the management of tools.
I do want to give Coren credit as he is doing what he can to support the migration.
My question is why has the wmf decided to degrade the environment where tool developers design and host tools (quite a few of them are long term stable projects)? and what can we do to remedy this?
John