OpenEuphoria

1. Submitting Bug Reports

• Posted by jeremy (admin) Mar 13, 2009
• 1184 views

It's very important during the alpha and especially the beta stages of Euphoria for users to report any problem that is found. Many times that is done here on the forums. For the developers, this is very hard to manage. It's easy to loose bug reports in the shuffle as many are not posted with clear titles or posted amongst many messages dealing with comments of 4.0, etc...

It's OK to discuss bugs and ask questions to see if you have found a bug, but it's always best if the actual bug is reported (or a follow up report) on our http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=182827&atid=902782. There is also a http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=182827&atid=902785 for feature requests.

Basically, this gives us a place to put bugs where we can collaborate on them, assign them to developers who will be fixing the bugs, set priorities and most importantly, where they will not get lost. Further, the SF.net tracker has notifications that are sent out to developers when a new bug is submitted and anyone interested in a bug can "Monitor" the bug to watch it go through the stages of the report to the completion.

Now, submitting a bug report is a good start, however, for the devs to be able to fix it quickly and not spin their wheels, it has to be a good bug report. Let's take a fictional bug you may have found... ? 1 + 1 -- 2, works, ? 1 + 2 -- 4 ... Oh my! 1 + 2 is not 4, it's 3, I found a bug.

Here is an example bad bug report:

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Subject

Addition doesn't work

Message

I tried to add two numbers and it didn't work

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Ok, so now we come along and type ? 1 + 1 2, ? 10 + 10 20, ? 15 + 15 30... We will then close the bug report as "Works for me!"

Here is a good bug report:

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Subject

Addition of some numbers yields an incorrect result

Message

I have tried 1 + 1, 2 + 2, 3 + 3 and a whole host of other numbers and they all worked. However, 1 + 2 returns the answer as 4. This was the only addition problem that I found to be incorrect.

I have created a test case that can be executed with eutest:

test_equal("1 + 2 is 3 not 4", 3, 1 + 1)

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The above bug report is much better and will result in less work on the developer to find and fix the bug. Euphoria 4.0 has a new program that is distributed with it called eutest. This is a unit testing system that is generic and can be used to test any library. You can read all about how to use eutest in the manual, Unit Testing Framework. Euphoria 4.0 has over 2,000 tests included with it. You can look in your EUDIR/tests directory to find them, look at examples, and even run them (simply type eutest while in that directory, it'll run every single file). You can also run just one test by typing eutest t_sequence.e, for example.

These unit tests not only help us find the problem but keeps the problem from coming back. When you submit the test_equal case above, we will add it to Euphoria's test cases, then run the test and watch it fail. Once we have a failing test, we will then fix Euphoria so the test no longer fails and, in addition, doesn't cause any other test to start failing. This is very important and test cases are highly desired. If, however, you cannot come up with at unit test, still submit the bug as we want to know about it, but if you can, please include a unit test.

In time, I will move this to the wiki as well, but it's here first for comment.

Thank you,

Jeremy

test_equal("1 + 2 is 3 not 4", 3, 1 + 2) 

3. Re: Submitting Bug Reports

• Posted by mattlewis (admin) Mar 13, 2009
• 1239 views

Note that in order to track a bug, you need a SF account (and be logged in). This is also helpful, since we'll know who submitted the bug, if we need to ask any questions. Again, not necessary (anonymous bugs are allowed), but helpful to us.

Also here is some good information on how to submit good bug reports.

Matt

5. Re: Submitting Bug Reports

• Posted by jeremy (admin) Mar 13, 2009
• 1195 views

Bernie, that's a good idea, however, it's a lot of work to make an effective bug tracker and we already have one on SF.net. Maybe once 4.0 is out and everyone has had a break, we *may* venture in that area as it is nice to have a combined login and to be able to show off tools written with Euphoria, but as of now, we just don't have the time or resources.

Jeremy

7. Re: Submitting Bug Reports

• Posted by jeremy (admin) Mar 13, 2009
• 1203 views

Many bug reports come in on SF.net already, before my post. I think it's just because not many people know of it. The SF.net bug tracker is quite easy to use, and actually, you do not even have to login if you do not want to. It's helpful if you do, but not required.

Maybe what I should do is add a link w/the others (Home, Forum, Manual, ...) linking to our SF.net tracker page. Maybe with a title of Bugs or Report Bug, something of that nature.

Jeremy

9. Re: Submitting Bug Reports

• Posted by bernie Mar 13, 2009
• 1189 views

Jeremy:
There is NO location that I can see on SF.net or
the Home page WIKI or even your 'Submitting Bug Reports' post
that has a BUTTON or LINK that says REPORT A BUG HERE.
SF.net does mean anything to a new user or non-developer
and is not easy to navigate.

11. Re: Submitting Bug Reports

• Posted by mattlewis (admin) Mar 13, 2009
• 1208 views

Yes, it takes some getting used to, or exploring. From the Project Page, select the "Tracker" menu, and click on "Bugs". It should take you to here. There is an "Add New" link. If you switch to the 'new tracker', I believe it is a button.

You can also search and browse the bugs that are there. There's also a feature request tracker.

Matt

13. Re: Submitting Bug Reports

• Posted by bernie Mar 13, 2009
• 1234 views

Thanks for making my point Jim
To new user or someone that is not familiar with SF.net
that link is NOT obvious.

Thats is why it has to be made easier to submit a
bug or they are going continue to submit them on the
forum.

15. Re: Submitting Bug Reports

• Posted by mattlewis (admin) Mar 13, 2009
• 1198 views

Bernie,

No one is arguing this point. In fact, we've been supplying information in order to help, and Jeremy just added a link.

I'd just add that it's better to get reports and comments if you're logged into sf.net (though not required).

Matt

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