You know what? I'm convinced. Part of it is the recent posts where
people assumed responsibility over future packages - we need to make
that easy to do well. I also agree with the rest of things you said - 
you did describe a process we actually do, as far as it goes :-)

So how/what do we integrate with the current process? I'm not sure "mail
bug to list" is very compatible with using a bug tracker. The current
tools don't help one look at the existing bugs.

The BFAV currently doesn't show bugs (before I referred to the BFA,
which does). Maybe if the BFAV does show bugs, and is included in the
basic image, it will already be much easier for people to see existing
issues. Of course the BFAV doesn't yet have any fancy bug-tracking
features, but it would be an incremental improvement.

Maybe someone else can propose a method of integration for the existing
process for some other tools, I'm not familiar with any.

Daniel

Lex Spoon <lex at cc.gatech.edu> wrote:
> To try and reply in brief, I don't think we need a better-defined
> process before we switch to a better bug  tracker.  It is great to think
> about how to make sure bugs do eventually get dealt with, etc., but we
> don't have make every possible improvement to our infrastructure before
> we make a single improvement.
> 
> We do have a process already, even if it's not described with reams of
> policy documents.  Bug-fixing people fix bugs when they feel like it. 
> Such people can use tool support.  Squeak-using people report bug by
> emailing the list with [BUG] in the subject.  These people could use
> better tool support as well.
> 
> 
> A decent bug tracker can let people do things like:
> 
> 	- find a list of all open bugs
> 	- find a list of all open bugs regarding Celeste
> 	- report a bug that a user found in Tetris
> 	- check on what other users have reported about Tetris, to see if the
> bug has already been found
> 
> This functionality is just the ticket for our current process, and it is
> likely to be very useful in whatever process gets dreamed up next.
> 
> I disagree that BFAV already does all these things for us, though I'd be
> happy to be proven wrong.
> 
> I used to think that bug trackers were overkill for us, but I  have
> entirely switched my mind.  Largely this is because of working in Debian
> and seeing how nice it is to have a list of all open bugs on each
> package.  As well, though, the Squeak community just seems to be
> changing; cleanup tasks are getting more popular.
> 
> 
> -Lex