Re: 4K Bugs

[Alexis <flexibeast@gmail.com>]

i've just recently installed the `debbugs` package myself, as part 
of trying to help out with bug triage. i rather like it overall, 
and find it less unwieldy than the Web UI - thanks to those who 
have put it together! Still, i too have had some issues:

Phillip Lord <phillip.lord@russet.org.uk> writes:

>  - After installing debbugs, there is no obvious entry 
>  point. M-x 
>    debugs-[tab] gives 30 different commands.

Agreed; it took me a few moments to realise that debbugs-gnu was 
probably what i wanted.

>  - debbugs-gnu list bugs from number 158 and upward; the entire 
>  first 
>    500 is about emacs 23 pre-releases. If I want to get the 
>    latest bugs, they are on page 5.

An argument could be made that the longest-outstanding issues 
should be displayed first, to try to encourage their 
resolution. Having said that, it could also be argued that their 
longevity means they're less likely to be able to be resolved soon 
than recent bugs. So i'm not sure what the best default is here.

>  - Bugs marked as "done" and "unreproducible" are displayed by 
>  default.

i would certainly prefer that "done" and "unreproducible" bugs 
were not displayed by default.

>  - On none of the debbugs pages are there any obvious menu items 
>  or 
>    bug-related functionality.

Well, as usual in these situations, i used C-h m (`describe-mode`) 
to find out what i can do; but yes, it might be useful to at least 
have one or two lines of text describing at least some of the 
possible commands (and maybe also, what the colours in the `State` 
field indicate).

>  - I found out about hitting "C" to send a control 
>  message. Configuring 
>    this to "mail client" and up pops thunderbird, although I am 
>    a Gnus user.

i'm a mu4e user, and when i try to send a control message 
.... Well, i'm not sure what happens. i get nothing to indicate a 
message was sent, but nothing to indicate it failed to be sent 
either. i can successfully use mu4e to reply to messages in the 
relevant bug thread, though.

Finally, i'd like to suggest that the `debbugs` manual be renamed 
to something like `debbugs-dev`, and the `debbugs-ug` manual be 
renamed to `debbugs`. In trying to find out what the colours in 
the `State` field indicated, i ran the `info-display-manual` 
command and specified `debbugs`; the result ("Debbugs Programmers 
Manual") surprised me, and it took me a while to realise that 
there's a `debbugs-ug` ("Debbugs User Guide") manual. My guess is 
that many more people are going to want to use the latter than the 
former; hence my rename suggestion. Perhaps it might also be 
useful to link to the User Guide from the `debbugs` UI?


Alexis.