May 11, 2001
Dear R:BASE Community;
I have noticed the ongoing discussions regarding RBTI's
policies on reporting and advertising "Bugs" that are
submitted by R:DCC and R:List members. Thus, I thought
that I would take a moment to clear everything up so that
all of our loyal R:BASE community understands the reasoning
behind using the process that we do.
I will begin by defining the proper process to report a
problem that you may encounter and feel that possibly is
a "Bug".
01. Scan you database using AUTOCHK FULL to see if you
have any obvious database corruption that inhibits
R:BASE from processing things properly.
02. UNLOAD ALL into a text file, and recreate the database
in a NEW directory to observe any structure problems
that may exist. Watch for any ERROR messages during
the rebuild.
03. Examine the process that you execute prior to and
during the occurrence to see if you may be using
invalid commands or reserved words either in your
code, or as table or column names in your database.
04. Try to recreate the scenario on the sample ConComp
database to see if it can be replicated there. If it
cannot, you probably have a database level problem.
05. Call our dedicated Support Staff and see if we can
replicate the problem, or see what you may be doing
wrong. If our Support Technician can replicate the
problem, and verifies that it may possible be a bug,
he/she will probably request that you report the issue
in detail to the R:DCC Bug Submission area so that our
Development Team can look into the issue.
06. You can now periodically check the status of YOUR
submission to see what our Development Team has
concluded. If the submission is replicable by our
Development Team, the problem is usually fixed
immediately, and documented in the next patch. If the
submission is NOT found to be replicable, or is
replicable but cannot be fixed in the current version,
the "Bug" will be flagged with one of many statuses
that describe what our plans to address the issue are.
Now that we have discussed the PROPER procedure to inform us
of possible issues, let's look at why we conduct our process
this way, rather than making all "Bug" reports public.
We all know that everyone has different methods of doing the
same thing. Unfortunately, some of us took shortcuts years
ago in our code that has now caught up to us. To respect
everyone's dignity and intelligence, we have decided that it
is best to screen these submissions PRIVATELY before we go
public with bogus reports usually caused by "sloppy" code,
improper database design, or antiquated methods of doing
things. Statistics have shown us that the vast majority of
reported "Bugs" are user and design error, rather than a
programmatic problem.
Please keep in mind that we invite all our CURRENT users to
discuss/explain any possible "Bug" on our own official list
server ([EMAIL PROTECTED]), or communicate with RBTI
staff via e-mail or phone. However, the only way to
communicate with our Development Team is via the R:DCC
submission area. Our programmers check the site regularly,
and update the statuses accordingly.
Also, we encourage you to talk to anyone who has followed the
proper procedure and has been a part of the R:DCC experience
to see that we go out of our way to resolve any issue that we
are confronted with. We have even gone so far as to repair
their code so that we can demonstrate an example of the proper
way to do something. Our Development Team has even created
emergency repairs within 24 hours for our valued customers
who have notified us properly and who did their homework to
document a legitimate issue before contacting us!
Please keep in mind that as with everything in life, we must
prioritize according to importance and demand. For this and
other reasons, we must ask your patience when dealing with
these matters.
I hope this clarifies everything, and explains better why we
must follow the proper procedure.
Should anyone have any question or if I can be of any further
assistance, please feel free to contact me privately.
Very Best Regards,
Razzak.
A. Razzak Memon
President & CEO
R:BASE Technologies, Inc.
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