Bug Reports and Feature Requests
- Posted by jeremy (admin) Apr 02, 2009
- 861 views
You are going to see me post a few messages about this over the coming weeks so that it is stressed multiple times how important this is.
During the pre-alpha and alpha stages of Euphoria 4.0, there has been numerous lengthy discussions about features and how they should be implemented. This is fantastic for the pre-alpha and alpha stages because the new features have to be designed and what better way than to get lot's of input? However, going forward into the beta stages, we will be shifting gears from design to bug fixing.
For the most part, there does not have to be much discussion on a bug and how to fix it. A bug is a bug and it needs fixed. For instance, "Interpreter prints 5 when you run this program: ? 2 + 2". That's a bug, no discussion required.
With 4.0 beta, the only way to ensure a stable release is to have a structured method of taking bug reports, organizing them and assigning them to a developer. This is exactly what the SF.net bug tracker does for us. It is so easy to forget a bug, or to think Oh, Matt will take care of that one while Matt thinks Derek will fix it while Derek thinks Jim will fix it, etc... What will happen to that bug report that was reported here on the forum? It will make it right into 4.0 final release, I am sure.
Now, what will happen to that same bug report that is entered into the SF.net bug tracker page? It will cause 4.0 to not be released until that bug is fixed. What will that do? Make 4.0 stable! We will not release 4.0 with known bugs unfixed! But where is our list of known bugs? On the SF.net bug tracker of course. We are not and cannot search the forum to look for known bugs. We are a small developer team and with out the organization of the SF.net bug tracker page, we will spend more time in finding and tracking bugs than we will fixing them.
Now, I want to be clear about this... There is nothing at all wrong with posting messages here on EUforum talking about a bug, verifying the bug exists, asking users if they are experiencing the same thing, etc... but once it is determined that it indeed is a bug, someone (preferably the person who found the bug) needs to create a new bug report on the SF.net bug tracker page. This is not the job of the developer. The developer should be going to the SF.net bug tracker to get work assignments. He/she should not have to scour over EUforum looking for bugs to enter into the SF.net bug tracker page. You want the developers developing, not doing admin work. It's not a good use of their limited, volunteer time.
Please do not think that the developers are lazy, we are not but we need to be working on fixing bugs not trying to determine from forum posts what might be a bug, trying to figure out how to reproduce a bug, etc... Everyone will be much better off if the developer spends 90% of their time fixing the bug instead of searching the forum for bugs.
Once 4.0, I am going to be running a fun game to help us all with bug reporting. I hope everyone will enjoy it. More details will be posted once beta is released. Until then, please start getting use to the SF.net bug tracker page. 4.0's future is highly dependent upon your familiarity with it.
Jeremy
