[Python-Dev] Moving bugs and patches through the pipeline more quickly

[Jonathan Gardner]

On Wed, Mar 06, 2002 at 08:31:09PM -0500, Guido van Rossum wrote:
> [Skip]
> > Okay, that got a response!  If bugs are submitted without
> > assignment, we should probably establish a formal triage system.  It
> > could work on a rotating basis (weekly?).  Still, I think there has
> > to be some way to work through new bugs quickly to either get them
> > advanced quickly or ejected from the system.
> 
> Sorry, since we're all volunteers here, I don't see how a formal
> rotation could work.  Since you're a volunteer, I don't feel
> comfortable to tell you to do something.  We all know how to do triage
> on bugs and patches, so I assume that if you have time, you'll do it
> without me telling you so.  SourceForge has plenty of annotation
> capability so there's very little risk of duplicate work.
> 

People volunteer for all kinds of activities and they understand that
there is someone in charge who will give them orders. Of course, they
can refuse the request, but when someone signs on understanding that
they will be told what to do and how to do it, I don't see how telling
them what to do will be a problem.

Someone who is green like me needs the guidance and the mentoring and
the counsel, and the occasional slap on the wrist.

> >     Guido> Playing games with the bug priority to get someone's
> >     Guido> attention is also the wrong thing to do -- only the
> >     Guido> experienced developers should raise the priority of a
> >     Guido> bug, based on its real importance; we have rules like
> >     Guido> "everything priority 7 or higher must be fixed before the
> >     Guido> next release".  (Lowering priority on submission is fine
> >     Guido> of course, if you know you have a low priority bug
> >     Guido> report.)
> > 
> > I don't believe I suggested this as a way to grab peoples'
> > attention.
> 
> No, but Jonathan Gardner did that, and really p*ssed me off (he was
> complaining he didn't get a response to a bug he reported the previous
> evening).
> 

There is a patch that has been unlooked at. It was discussed on c.l.py.,
some people decided it was a bug, and I was told to make a patch and put
it on SF. I did. It has been almost two months now, and there has been
no response. 

#502080 - BaseHTTPServer send_error bug fix
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=502080&group_id=5470&atid=305470

And so I was under the impression that the real bugs weren't handled at
sourceforge, that they were handled somewhere else on some secret
mailing list or some other older dev site in Pythonlabs. I thought only
a few eyes were watching. I thought that it really didn't matter that
much, and so I played games with it.

> > 
> > Well, you could always post an announcement on c.l.py.  I suspect
> > you might have an initial candidate in Jonathan Gardner.  ;-)
> 
> Given the fate of his bug report, I think he may be a little green. :-(
> 

No argument here. Definitely started off on the wrong foot.

Jonathan