About KDE bug tracker

[Josh Berry]

On Sep 20, 2009, at 3:13 , Iñaki Baz Castillo wrote:

> El Domingo, 20 de Septiembre de 2009, Juan Carlos Torres escribió:
>> On Sun, Sep 20, 2009 at 12:25 AM, Iñaki Baz Castillo  
>> <ibc at aliax.net> wrote:
[snip]

>>> - Searching for a specific bug is a pain as the involved component  
>>> (ie:
>>> kmail,
>>> kopete, plasma...) is not a column when the bugs are shown.
>>
>> Not sure what you mean.
>
> In the above page ("Show all open reports that I reported") there is  
> list of
> bugs/wishes reported by me. It shows the following columns. This is  
> a real
> entry of the list:

This is because most of the time, when you are dealing with a list of  
bugs, you care only about a specific application.  In the common use  
case, it doesn't make sense to view the product/component.

The people typically viewing lists of bugs are developers or QA people  
who are working on a specific application, and want to walk through  
the list of bugs for that application.  It would be a waste of space  
for the KMail developer to see that all the bugs in his list are kmail  
bugs -- he knows that already!

End users (bug reporters) typically do not deal with lists -- they  
file specific bugs, and then return to comment on those bugs (e.g.  
with more information) when they get email saying a bug has been  
updated.

In any case, this is configurable.  When you are viewing a bug list,  
scroll to the bottom and click the "Change Columns" link.

[snip]
> Also, go to "Show all open reports that I reported" and filter all  
> your bugs
> related to Kmail, easy? not at all, you must read all the summaries  
> (perhaps
> some of them says "deleting a folder fails", how do you know if that  
> bug is
> related to Kmail, Konqueror, Dolphin...?)

You should use the Search tool to do this.

What's more, if you find yourself doing a search more than a few  
times, it's probably a good idea to save the search, so you can repeat  
it again by clicking on a link.

>>> - After posting a comment in a bug, that bug dissapears and the  
>>> next one
>>> appears... ¿?
>>
>> Again, not sure what you mean. What "next one"? I just commented on  
>> a bug
>> right now and it didn't go to a "next one".
>
> Right now I've added a comment in this hateful bug 196949 reported  
> by me:
>
>  https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=196949
>
> after pressing "Commit" the new URL is:
>
>  https://bugs.kde.org/process_bug.cgi (which says nothing of course)
>
> and the new page shows:
>
>  "The next bug in your list is bug 202512:"
>  (followed by the entire description of bug 202512)
>
> This is: I'm redirected to the next bug in my list, why??

Because in most cases once someone is finished dealing with a bug,  
they leave a comment on it and move on to the next bug in the list.   
Bugzilla automates this for you because again, the people most often  
dealing with lists are the developers.

If, however, you don't have a current list (e.g. you clicked on a link  
in a bug email to reply to that particular bug), Bugzilla will stay on  
the current bug.

This is also configurable.  Click the "Edit my Preferences" link in  
the left sidebar (under "My Account"), and change the "After changing  
a bug" setting to "Show the updated bug".

>> And I the only who doesn't feel confortable with current bug tracker?
>>
>>> Is there any aim to change/improve it?
>>
>> KDE is using Bugzilla for it's bug tracker. It is not a homebrew
>> application. So whatever limitations you're bumping into, almost  
>> all users
>> of Bugzilla also experience. There is always an ongoing communication
>> between KDE and Bugzilla on how it can be improved. You can find  
>> out more
>> about them at http://www.bugzilla.org/
>
> I use lots of bug trackers in different projects, also Bugzilla. I  
> expect that
> it is customizable and the configuration for KDE's bug tracker is just
> "wrong".  In any other project's bugtracker I feel more confortable  
> (but in
> KDE's bugtracker sometimes I look for my own reported bugs in Google  
> as it's
> faster than searching in "Show all open reports that I reported").
> Also, I'm not the only person complaining about it, I've read  
> similar opinions
> in some forums and lists.

Well, all of the gripes you have mentioned so far can be totally  
removed by changing a few preferences. :)

The defaults are the way they are because they work well for the  
majority of the heavy users of the bug-tracking system, so unless a  
lot of the developers start complaining, I wouldn't expect them to  
change.

-- Josh