[Python-Dev] Enhanced tracker privileges for "dangerjim" to do triage.

[Terry Reedy]

On 4/26/2010 2:12 AM, Sean Reifschneider wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 08:42:00PM -0400, Terry Reedy wrote:
>> What is *his* interest? How long has he known and used Python?
>
> Good points have been made on both sides of the issue here.  Despite my
> having a vested interest, I really have no strong feelings one way or
> another on the initial request.

Of course, much of the discussion has little to do with the particulars 
of your request ;-).

> But, the answers to your questions above may make it more clear why I was
> looking for the enhanced privileges.
>
> James (dangerjim) has *NO* knowledge of Python -- he has done primarily C
> and Java coding.  He *DOES* have time on his hands.  This is why I proposed
> to him to do tracker triage.
>
> However, as I started walking him through some examples of triage, I
> realized that regular accounts don't have the privileges to do any of the
> things I was proposing.  For example:
>
>     Go into the list of task tasks and look at the ones with no priority.

No priority effectively means normal priority. I will separately suggest 
that the latter be made the default so there is no need for anyone to 
make such busywork changes.

>     Read through the description and any follow-ups and try to figure out
>     what priority to give it.  In most cases it will be "normal".

As said above, the need to do this should be fixed. In the meantime, if 
people really care about having 'no selection' replaced by 'normal', I 
could do more. I have not bothered because I regard the two as synonyms 
and have not bothered. What a boring thing to give to a newcomer.

 >     However,
>     for some issues it will be clear they should be a higher or lower
>     priority, even to someone who doesn't know Python.

After years on the tracker, *I* do not try to make such judgemnts, so I 
am dubious about the ability of a non-Python newcomer to do so terribly 
sensibly.

>     Then we went on to issue 5575 and read through it.  In reading this one
>     to determine the priority, it was clear that the ball was back in
>     Collin's court, so I showed that I would look to see if Collin was a
>     valid assignee (which he was) and assign it to him, with a comment about
>     why.

To my understanding, the 'asignee' is the person who will make a 
decision on the issue, which usually is the maintainer of the component. 
Who maintains the sqlite, hashlib and ssl modules? I do not know that 
'asignee' should change every time the ball moves to another's court. I 
thought it stayed constant except when the assignee cannot deal with the 
issue.

Is my understanding obsolete?

>     Go into old bugs that have patches, and see if the patches cleanly apply
>     against the trunk.  If they do, do a "make" and "make test".  Add a
>     comment with the outcome.

This, and related C patch review activities, which do not require 
escalated privileges, would be *much* more useful, and probably more 
interesting to your C coding friend.

> Two of the 3 easiest things I came up with for an outsider to help out
> with, are things that his account couldn't do.

But, as I said, one of those two should be fixed, and I believe 
auto-assignment is gradually being improved. The most useful things a C 
coder can do he can do now.

Issues are stalled by lack of review, not by blank priority fields.

Terry Jan Reedy