- Original Message -
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: Egbert Eich [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, January 13, 2003 10:45 AM
Subject: Re: [Devel] Re: Another voice
Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Egbert Eich [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 11:10:14 +0100
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [Devel] Re: Another voice
-
Matt Wilson writes:
I'm not attempting to bully anyone, nor have I argued that you or any
other member (individual or corporate) of XFree86. However, there
are
plenty of volunteers that are offering to set up and maintain a bug
tracking system for you. I think that such a project would be much
more successful if it were endorsed by XFree86 and integrated into
the
development policy for the project.
Matt, I'm *very* uncomfortable with saying a bug tracking system should
become
policy for any project unless/until a project has a pretty universal
buy in that it should be that way. We're a *very* long way from that
point.
Sorry, this is not how it goes. We won't be willing
to adopt anything blindly. There is a German saying
applying here:
'Never buy a cat in the bag!'
1. First there should be a proposal
Seems like that's what some of us have been making, though we haven't
fleshed it out completely yet. Without discussion, it is difficult
to make it concrete. Ergo, the discussion.
2. Secondly there should be a test implementation
as proof of concept we can work with and see
how well it goes.
Entirely agree.
4. Thirdly this should be evaluated
- if we think it is usable at all.
- what modifications we would like to see.
Entirely agree.
5. The modified system needs to get retested and reevaluated.
Entirely agree.
6. This is the earliest stage we can talk about a more or
less formal policy.
Entirely agree. Any policy, however, can/should only occur if there is
nearly complete consensus. We're a long way from that, if ever.
Up to now it is not even clear who should be able to
submit to this bug tracking system:
Very good questions on which multiple opinions are solicited.
Should it be internal only?
Should only projects like GNOME, KDE etc and
distributions like RedHat, SuSE, Mandrake be able to
submit bugs?
Or should it be open to the general public?
I personally argue for openness, with a couple major caveats:
o The verbiage around bug submission should be carefully crafted to
try to help with the triage process between projects (e.g.
if your server crashes, its definately an XFree86 bug; if it is bad
rendering, asking people to verify it is specific to a particular
piece of hardware, else report to the appropriate project's bug system,
and so on.
o the states of a bug inside the database allow for triage, with
states like bug verified, duplicate, etc. I suspect/expect many
developers
might ignore problems until they've been marked verified. That's the
point
of a triage process: to bounce the problem the right direction so that not
all bugs get looked at by all people (or no people).
One could go through an evolutionary process, from developers, to invited
others, to fully open.
The question still is: is there enough interest among the developer
community
to it be worth the investment to get it set up? If no-one is going to use
it, why bother? On the other hand, if enough of us say, as I do, that
we're dropping too many problems on the floor and such a system might
be useful if it gets established correctly, I think there is enough
resources to start getting it set up. But those resources should go
elsewhere if there is no interest.
And who would determine the 'no interest'?. Is this mutual or some arbitary
self-appointed person?
Georgina
- Jim
--
Jim Gettys
Cambridge Research Laboratory
HP Labs, Hewlett-Packard Company
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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