[Doc-SIG] [Python-Dev] that library reference, again

[Ian Bicking]

Nick Coghlan wrote:
>>Anyway, another even more expedient option would be setting up a 
>>separate bug tracker (something simpler to submit to than SF) and 
>>putting a link on the bottom of every page, maybe like: 
>>http://trac.python.org/trac/newticket?summary=re:+/path/to/doc&component=docs 
>>-- heck, we all know SF bug tracking sucks, this is a good chance to 
>>experiment with a different tracker, and documentation has softer 
>>requirements other parts of Python.
> 
> 
> While I quite like this idea, would it make it more difficult when the bug 
> tracking for the main source code is eventually migrated off SF? And what 
> would happen to existing documentation bug reports/patches on the SF trackers?

I think the requirements for documentation are a bit lighter, so it's 
not as big a deal.  E.g., the history of bug reports on documentation 
isn't as important, either the ones from SF, or if all of Python moves 
to a new system then the history of the transitional system. 
Documentation is mostly self-describing.

> Is it possible to do something similar for the online version of the current 
> docs, simply pointing them at the SF tracker? (I know this doesn't help people 
> without an SF account. . .)

Perhaps; I haven't played with the SF interface at all, so I don't know 
if you can prefill fields.  But it's still a pain, since logging into SF 
isn't seemless (since you don't get redirected back to where you started 
from).  Also, I don't know if the requirements for documentation match 
the code generally.  Being able to follow up on documentation bugs isn't 
as important, so if you don't always collect the submitters email 
address it's not that big a deal.  Doc maintainers may be willing to 
filter through a bit more spam if it means that they get more 
submissions, and so forth.  The review process probably isn't as 
important.  So I think it could be argued that code and documentation 
shouldn't even be on the same tracker.  (I'm not really arguing that, 
but at least it doesn't seem like a big a deal if they aren't on the 
same system)

-- 
Ian Bicking  |  ianb at colorstudy.com  |  http://blog.ianbicking.org