[Scribus] Reporting bugs

Louis Desjardins louisdesjardins
Fri May 12 14:28:22 CEST 2006


Hi,

Here are a few thoughts I want to share about reporting bugs. This 
relates to bug #3802 with which, by the way, I fully agree.

We have an increasing number of bug reports, many of which are 
duplicates or simple enhancements to ideas already suggested.

One thing I could mention at this point is that some bug reports are 
very long discussions. In my vew, these are better handled in the ML 
or anyway elsewhere than in the bug tracker on the first place. It is 
sometimes _very_ difficult to follow a thread and to answer in an 
efficient manner to _all_ the points. I for one get very confused by 
some discussions in the bug tracker.

One other point is once it is in the bug tracker, lots of ML 
participants can miss the discussion. The sad effect of this is we 
are currently cutting ourselves from a broad range of possible 
valuable input.

It is not all having an idea and posting it in the bug report. One 
has to think of the workflow: what will happen downstream.

There are a few rules which must be followed prior to report a bug or 
ask for a feature.

1. Check _carefully_ wether this bug/feature has already been 
reported _and_ if it has been enhanced in some way in the following 
notes. This check must include the Wiki and the Roadmap.

2. If you feel something has to be changed, let's discuss this on the 
ML as a first step. Some ideas are great but are already in the 
roadmap. And some other ideas needs a good brainstorm.

3. Keep it simple. Some posts are just not bearable on the bug 
tracker because they simply are too long. Also, not all people are as 
fluent in English and again we can miss some important input when we 
get paragraphs of endless descriptions... It may take more time to 
write short, but this time is worth it in the long run. Screenshots 
are fine too.

4. Examples. Real case scenarios. We need examples to understand what 
the idea is and how this new feature would help people work better 
and more efficiently.

Cheers and happy bug reporting!

Louis



More information about the scribus mailing list