From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Juanma Barranquero Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Bug tracking (was: new *Help* argument highlighting) Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2004 12:53:47 +0200 Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Message-ID: <20040611122633.5F88.JMBARRANQUERO@wke.es> References: <20040512103042.FB57.JMBARRANQUERO@wke.es> NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1086951289 12065 80.91.224.253 (11 Jun 2004 10:54:49 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2004 10:54:49 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Fri Jun 11 12:54:41 2004 Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1BYjgG-0000SZ-00 for ; Fri, 11 Jun 2004 12:54:40 +0200 Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1BYjgG-0003w5-00 for ; Fri, 11 Jun 2004 12:54:40 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.33) id 1BYjh0-0006l7-1P for emacs-devel@quimby.gnus.org; Fri, 11 Jun 2004 06:55:26 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.33) id 1BYjgX-0006Ws-Ce for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 11 Jun 2004 06:54:57 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.33) id 1BYjgV-0006Vw-4o for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 11 Jun 2004 06:54:56 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.33) id 1BYjgV-0006Vq-1J for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 11 Jun 2004 06:54:55 -0400 Original-Received: from [62.22.181.117] (helo=idefix.laley.net) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1BYjfQ-0002zY-Vj; Fri, 11 Jun 2004 06:53:49 -0400 Original-Received: from [172.17.221.23] (JMBARRANQUERO [172.17.221.23]) by idefix.laley.net with SMTP (Microsoft Exchange Internet Mail Service Version 5.5.2655.55) id LSNJ728W; Fri, 11 Jun 2004 12:53:01 +0200 Original-To: rms@gnu.org In-Reply-To: X-Mailer: Becky! ver. 2.08.01 [en] X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.4 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:24828 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:24828 On Thu, 13 May 2004 11:45:32 -0400 Richard Stallman wrote: > Savannah has some sort of bug-tracking facility, but I have never used > it and I don't know how it works. Does someone else want to find out? I see no bug tracking facility on Savannah, but perhaps I didn't look at the right places. Still, the question remains: should we use some kind of issue tracker? Currently we have an etc/TODO, which is sort of half wish list, half grab bag of heterogeneous items. I'm all for using an issue tracker, if only because it makes easier to know where we are, release-wise, for any given release. For example, what's precluding us from doing a prerelease tarball just today (not that I'm proposing it, of course)? My guess is that a mix of: - Outstanding bugs (each one known to a few developers, the ones more interested or knowledgeable on the issue) - Pending documentation for new features - Undecided status of several patches (dynamic loading, currying, overridable faces, etc.) - Lack of consensus for the release number (OK, that's only half-serious :) - Uncertainty about where we stand right now Of course, issue tracking systems have other advantages than I'm not going to repeat here, unrelated to whether we're trying to do a release right now or not. Almost every serious free or open source project out there uses one form or another of issue tracking. We should do it, not to follow suit, but for the intrinsic gain. I said a while back that IMHO we should be a more structured project, in the sense of having a plan for releases, with tentative dates, perhaps even a release manager, etc. Someone (Eli, I think, but I'm speaking from memory) opposed on the grounds that it costs human resources that we don't have. But the Emacs project has 87 registered developers; that's 33% more than Subversion, for example, and they seem to be doing well on that regard (though, to be fair, they have four or five people paid to work almost full-time on Subversion). OTOH, perhaps I'm the only one that feels that way, and I'm just pissing out my turf... Juanma