[Python-Dev] Buglist

[Jeremy Hylton]

>>>>> "TW" == Thomas Wouters <thomas@xs4all.net> writes:

  >> It is good to assign bugs to people -- probably even if we end up
  >> playing hot potato for a while.  If a bug is assigned to you, you
  >> should either try to fix it, diagnose it, or assign it to someone
  >> else.

  TW> Hm, I did that for a few, but it's not very easy to find the
  TW> right person, in some cases. Bugs in the 're' module, should
  TW> they go to amk or to /F ? XML stuff, should it go to Paul
  TW> Prescod or some of the other people who seem to be doing
  TW> something with XML ? A 'capabilities' list would be pretty neat!

I had the same problem when I was trying to assign bugs.  It is seldom
clear who should be assigned a bug.  I have used two rules when
processing open, uncategorized bugs:

    * If you have a reasonable guess about who to assign a bug to,
    it's better to assign to the wrong person than not to assign at
    all.  If the wrong person gets it, she can assign it to someone
    else. 

    * If you don't know who to assign it to, at least give it a
    category.  That allows someone who feels expert in a category
    (e.g. a Tkinter guru), to easily scan all the unassigned bugs in
    that category.

  >> You seem to be arguing that the sheer number of bug reports
  >> bothers you and that it's better to have a shorter list of bugs
  >> regardless of whether they're actually fixed.  Come on! I don't
  >> want to overlook any bugs.

  TW> No, that wasn't what I meant :P 

Sorry.  I didn't believe you really meant that, but you came off
sounding like you did :-).

  TW> Having 9 out of 10 bugs waiting in the buglist without anyone
  TW> looking at them because it's too vague and everyone thinks not
  TW> 'their' field of expertise and expect someone else to look at
  TW> them, defeats the purpose of the buglist. 

I still don't agree here.  If you're not fairly certain about the bug,
keep it on the list.  I don't see too much harm in having vague, open
bugs on the list.  

  TW>                                           But closing those
  TW> bugreports, explaining the problem and even forwarding the
  TW> excerpt to the submittor *might* result in the original
  TW> submittor, who still has the bug, to forget about explaining it
  TW> further, whereas a couple of hours trying to duplicate the bug
  TW> might locate it. I personally just wouldn't want to be the one
  TW> doing all that effort ;)

You can send mail to the person who reported the bug and ask her for
more details without closing it.

  TW> Just-trying-to-help-you-do-your-job---not-taking-it-over-ly

And I appreciate the help!! The more bugs we have categorized or
assigned, the better.

of-course-actually-fixing-real-bugs-is-good-too-ly y'rs,
Jeremy