Re: bug tracker

Hi! :-)



> I'm a bit confused.  I thought the bug tracker was a replacement for the
> static bug list, not a replacement for inquiring about problems via this
> mailing list.
> I would think most more casual users would first want to inquire about a
> potential bug before posting it on the bug tracker.

I strongly agree with your assumption. I guess the mailing list is
rather useful to discuss a potential issue prior to submitting it into
the bug tracker. This has many advantages: for example, if the user
isn't able to properly reduce an issue, the community can then help
tighten the origin so that, in some cases, the problem might already
be known and/or fixed in trunk. ;-) An issue investigation thread
would then be terminated with a "submitted as bug #id" and the bug
contents could also include an URL to the thread where the discussion
had occurred. This is just an example of a particular situation, of
course. ;-)



> I also thought that the bug tracker was more for the people testing
> and working on fixes for Amaya than for the rest of us.

Well, I'd slightly disagree here: I guess the whole community will
benefit from using the bug tracker. It's a much better way of knowing
the status of the issues that may be affect you, and crawling through
other issues that may be affecting you without you knowing.



> Or is this list now only be used to announce the release of new versions?

I sincerely hope not! This mailing list is a great forum for many
subjects, ranging from issue reporting to support requests, and I
expect it to continue growing and maturing, as the community matures
with it. :-) My message was more meant to congratulate the development
team for their decision on a potential quality increase on the bug
tracking process which will eventually help increasing Amaya quality
too! :-)



> Thanks for any clarification any of you can provide.

These are personal opinions, I hope they might clarify some aspects
about my previous message. I invite the community (not just the
development team) to further debate on where and how should a bug
tracker be used in order to make the best possible usage of such a
powerful tool.



Best regards,

 Helder Magalhães

Received on Monday, 6 October 2008 09:43:20 UTC