Re: Why Emacs needs a modern bug tracker

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?=D3scar_Fuentes?= <ofv@wanadoo.es>
> Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2008 03:54:23 +0100
> 
> You are right on some aspect: so far there was too much insistence on
> how old-fashioned Emacs' development is and how cool modern practices
> are. Of course, this approach is wrong. We, the advocates of change,
> should provide more evidence supporting our proposals.

Not just evidence: you should volunteer to do actual work.  One of the
main weaknesses of Emacs development is (IMO) scarce resources (scarce
for such a humongously large package).  Many good ideas posted to this
list through the years were never implemented for that very reason.

A bug tracker is a good case in point: Richard stated quite some time
ago the basic requirements for his acceptance of such a tool, but no
one stepped forward to do anything practical about that.

You might argue that this is a chicken-and-egg problem: if the tools
we use were more efficient, more developers would have come on board.
That might be so, but I challenge you (and other proponents of change)
to break the vicious circle by making things happen.

> For the bug tracker, I'm afraid it will not so easy. Most likely,
> current Emacs developers should trade some diary personal incovenience
> for some long-term project development efficiency. On the other hand, it
> is difficult to appreciate the convenience of having an audit of a bug
> or feature until you are using the system for some months.

Starting such a system, but not making it mandatory, would be a good
step towards the goal of having a good tracker in the future.  In
general, a controversial feature should start as an option, before it
becomes the default.