* Bad interface
Most obvious example is the "Check to Upload" button
* Lack of reliability
SF has been known to go down during the day unexpectedly and stay down for hours
* Lack of workflow controls
For instance, you cannot delete a category once created
For these reasons and others, we are requesting the Python community help us find a new tracker to use. We are asking for test trackers to be set up to allow us to test them to see which tracker we want to move the Python development team to. This is in order to allow the Infrastructure committee to evaluate the various trackers to see which one meets our tracker needs the best.
Because we are not sure exactly what are requirements for a tracker are we do not have a comprehensive requirements document. But we do have a short list of bare minimum needs:
* Can import SF data
http://effbot.org/zone/sandbox-sourceforge.htm contains instructions on how to access the data dump and work with the support tools (graciously developed by Fredrik Lundh)
* Can export data
To prevent the need to develop our own tools to get our data out of the next tracker, there must be a way to get a dump of the data (formatted or raw) that includes *all* information
* Has an email interface
To facilitate participation in tracker item discussions, an email interface is required to lower the barrier to add comments, files, etc.
If there is a tracker you wish to propose for Python development team use, these are the steps you must follow:
* Install a test tracker
If you do not have the server resources needed, you may contact the Infrastructure committee at infrastructure at python.org, but our resources are limited by both machine and manpower, so *please* do what you can to use your own servers; we do not expect you to provide hosting for the final installation of the tracker for use by python-dev, though, if your tracker is chosen
* Import the SF data dump
http://effbot.org/zone/sandbox-sourceforge.htm
* Make the Infrastructure committee members administrators of the tracker
A list of the committee members can be found at http://wiki.python.org/moin/PythonSoftwareFoundationCommittees#infrastructure-committee-ic
* Add your tracker to the wiki page at http://wiki.python.org/moin/CallForTrackers
This includes specifying the contact information for a *single* lead person to contact for any questions about the tracker; this is to keep communication simple and prevent us from having competing installations of the same tracker software
* Email the Infrastructure committee that your test tracker is up and ready to be viewed
We will accept new trackers for up to a maximum of two months starting 2006-06-05 (and thus ending 2006-08-07). If trackers cease to be suggested, we will close acceptance one month after the last tracker proposed (this means the maximum timeframe for all of this is three months, ending 2006-09-04). This allows us to not have this process carry on for three months if there is no need for it to thanks to people getting trackers up quickly.
As the committee evaluates trackers we will add information about what we like and dislike to the http://wiki.python.org/moin/GoodTrackerFeatures wiki page so that various trackers and change their setttings and notify us of such changes. This prevents penalizing trackers that are set up quickly (which could be taken as a sign of ease of maintenance) compared to trackers that are set up later but possibly more tailored to what the Infrastructure committee discovers they want from a tracker.
If you have any questions, feel free to email infrastructure at python.org .
- Brett Cannon
Chairman, Python Software Foundation Infrastructure committee
-- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-announce-list
Support the Python Software Foundation:
http://www.python.org/psf/donations.html
