Back in September of last year in more or less official terms (the best
we could manage at the time anyway) it was suggested that all new BUG
reports be posted on the Mantis database.  At that time all ENH and
FIXes would still go to the list.  Compliance with this policy has been
spotty at best.  I'm now suggesting that we stop with the half-way
measures and simply designate that the Mantis database
(http://bugs.impara.de/) is THE official location for new BUG, ENH, and
FIX reports.

Why?

1.  As the BFAV server maintainer I can testify that the system itself
is somewhat fragile.

2.  Posting BUG reports to the list has some benefits in terms of
visibility but it has some major problems.

   a.  Any tool that has to try to automatically extract the useful
reports for the flood of activity has a difficult job even under the
best of circumstances.

   b.  There is no enforcement in email for any kind of standard of
reporting in terms of minimal information or staying on topic.  One
result of this is that more than a few threads in BFAV are overloaded
with off-topic discussion.  This makes the task for the prospective
fixer, harvester, reviewer whatever rather more difficult.  Also it has
happened in more than one case that reports to the list have the exact
same subject even if they are not really on the same topic.  This
results in them being mixed together in BFAV client.

3.  As we progress to a world where people are signing up to be
responsible for parts of Squeak we need a way to filter reports to those
people that are best placed to handle them.  BFAV has a difficult time
of providing this.  Mantis already has the facilities to do this.

Now, I don't expect the world to change overnight.  I expect that for
some time after we make this 'official' that reports will continue to
appear on the mailing list.  In fact sending reports to the mailing list
is something that newbies would probably be more comfortable with than
immediately jumping in and tackling the complexities of filling out a
Mantis report form.  To that end the Janitors group is proposing to form
a small team who will accept the responsibility for seeing that all
reports to the list after some date (sometime next week I hope) will be
checked for reasonable validity and be posted as new reports on the
Mantis database.  I expect that we will continue to provide this service
well into the forseeable future although with luck the volume of new
reports to the list will decrease.

Why not?

1.  Using the Mantis requires a little knowledge.  I think with the
process I outline above that the Janitors will handle we can completely
address this one by allow the occasional report to still appear on the
list and the understanding that as quickly as possible we will see to it
that it shows up in the Mantis database.

2.  Using the Mantis database is awkward.  Admittedly this is a new tool
to many people.  I feel that once everyone has learned to use it that
most of the awkwardness will disappear.  The only acception to this that
I can come up with is trying to evaluate Squeak code attachments.  Right
now that requires a two-step of saving the file from the web page and
then opening it in Squeak with a filelist or similar tool.  I personally
don't think that is too bad.  However I expect that before too long we
can address this one as well with a little Squeak tool that allows you
to specify the Mantis ID number of the issue and then offers you a list
of attachments that can be viewed and processed as easily as attachments
in the BFAV client.

Ken Causey


-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
Url : http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/squeak-dev/attachments/20050225/e967622b/attachment.pgp