[Vm-dev] Questions, communication and process

[David T. Lewis]

On Fri, Apr 09, 2010 at 11:23:18AM +0200, stephane ducasse wrote:
> 
> Hi vm guys,
> 
> I would like to know the process to report problems, issues, enh to the vm because people asked me 
> and I have no idea how this is done. I read the web site but I could not find a bugtracker.

Hi Stef,

In addition to Ian's explanations, I'll add couple of points.

> 
> Several questions:
> 	- How do people report problems? Just sending an email in the mailing-list is enough?

The bugtracker is Mantis at bugs.squeak.org. Use category "VM" when
reporting or searching for problems. For any problems or enhancement
requests that may time time to resolve, it is very helpful to use
the bugtracker because it provides a process for ensuring that issues
are addressed or at least not forgotten, and also a reference for
people who run into an issue that someone else has addressed.

I try to catch issues that I see on the Pharo and squeak-dev lists
and enter them on Mantis if they will need follow up, but I'm sure
that I miss things from time to time.

Follow Ian's instructions for reporting problems to vm-dev and the
platform developer. That is the way that problems get noticed,
discussed, and addressed. But to ensure follow-up, please also
use the bugtracker.

> 	- How a fix in one OS is propagated to the others?
> 	- How the user can know that?

For issues that affect the VM overall, the change history of the
VMMaker package on squeaksource is helpful. You can use Monticello
of course, but I like to point a web browser at www.squeaksource.com,
project VMMaker, and browse through the entries under the "News" tab.

A remaining problem is that that the VM user cannot always tell if
their VM actually contains a particular fix or feature. To some extent
you can figure it out from the name of the VM file, but we need a better
run time check. We (or I) will probably add a way to check this through
a primitive, but for now it remains confusing.

Dave