Re: Bug tracker choices for Emacs.

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

> It can be completely operated by email:
>   https://help.launchpad.net/Bugs/EmailInterface

Can we make bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org redirect to it (i.e. accept email
submissions from any random user without prior registration, which is
*very* important).
Can we install it in debbugs.gnu.org?
Can it be operated from Rmail (i.e. MUAs without support for GPG signing)?

>   - Not really operable via the web -- just read-only operations.
>     This is huge.

This is not huge for me, but it's clearly a shortcoming.

>   - Does not do automatic duplicate-finding when a new bug is submitted.
>     Launchpad bugs does, and it's a real gift.  (Actually, from reading
>     the documentation, it's not clear to me how to handle duplicates in
>     debbugs at all -- there doesn't seem to be a simple way to say
>     "Close bug #Y because it's a duplicate of #X".  And the mere fact
>     that one has to read the documentation is already a disadvantage.)

It's called "merge".  It's worked OK for me.

>   - Interface can be a bit unintuitive ("Toggle useless messages", for
>     example; or consider the number of choices one must make before
>     doing a simple search).
>   - A bit Debian-centric.  See the long list of checkboxes for
>     distributions in the search form on the front page, for example.

You mean the Web interface?  Yes, the web interface is not great.

> When we chose debbugs, it was effectively the only choice we had.  It
> certainly gets the job done.  But I'd like to know if anyone else is
> tempted by the thought of switching our bug tracking to Launchpad.

I'm not married to debbugs.  Launchpad's web interface is clearly more
pleasant, so if the other criterias are fulfilled, we could switch.


        Stefan