[Python-Dev] New bugtracker project

[David Ascher]

My list of requirements isn't so much a list of reqs as a list of 
features from bugzilla that we've found exceedingly useful.

0) keywords -- massively useful for targeting, filtering, etc.
1) Attachments on bugs (somewhat of  a merge of the patch tracker and 
bug tracker, but also useful for attaching test cases, screenshots, etc.)
2) Being able to "watch" people - be notified when their bugs have 
events happen to them, e.g.. when they're on vacation.
3) Saving and recalling searches
4) non-web, non-email access to the database (e.g. take all the bugs 
assigned to so and so, and take those submitted by people in england, 
and set the keyword "never" to them).
5) scalability (in # of developers, # of users, # of bugs, # of 
'versions', # of 'products', etc.)
6) Being able to migrate a bug from one product to another (not all that 
relevant for a Python-only bug tracker, except if the versions are 
handled as different products).
7) Bug linkages (depends on/blocks, duplicate handling, etc.)

Useful things we've added to bugzilla include:
1) Ability to designate bugs as 'for internal use only' (not especially 
important for python-dev =)
2) an 'efficient' UI.  The bugzilla default search results pages are 
very inefficient from a UI point of view.  Andy McKay's version is much 
better, I think.

Compare:

http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&email1=&emailtype1=substring&emailassigned_to1=1&email2=&emailtype2=substring&emailreporter2=1&bugidtype=include&bug_id=&changedin=&votes=&chfieldfrom=&chfieldto=Now&chfieldvalue=&component=Address+Book&short_desc=&short_desc_type=allwordssubstr&long_desc=&long_desc_type=allwordssubstr&bug_file_loc=&bug_file_loc_type=allwordssubstr&status_whiteboard=&status_whiteboard_type=allwordssubstr&keywords=&keywords_type=anywords&field0-0-0=noop&type0-0-0=noop&value0-0-0=&cmdtype=doit&order=Reuse+same+sort+as+last+time

and:

http://bugs.activestate.com/buglist.cgi?product=&querytype=simple&bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&email1=&emailtype1=substring&emailassigned_to1=1&bugidtype=include&bug_id=&changedin=&chfieldfrom=&chfieldto=Now&chfieldvalue=&short_desc=&short_desc_type=substring&long_desc=&long_desc_type=substring&bug_file_loc=&bug_file_loc_type=substring&status_whiteboard=&status_whiteboard_type=substring&keywords_type=anywords&field0-0-0=noop&type0-0-0=noop&value0-0-0=&order=bugs.priority%20ASC%2C%20bugs.bug_status%20ASC%2C%20map_assigned_to.login_name%20ASC%2C%20bugs.bug_id%20DESC

As I've mentioned in the past, we used an earlier version of roundup and 
found it didn't scale well with thousands of users.  I haven't look at 
the new roundup to know if it's dealt with the problems we had (way too 
much mail generation by default, much too brittle, and poorly 
architected =).

It's also important to have flexibility in handling the bug cycle (who 
closes, who verifies, etc.).  Both roundup and bugzilla did that pretty 
well.

--david