Re: 4K Bugs

[Phillip Lord]

Alexis <address@hidden> writes:

> i've just recently installed the `debbugs` package myself, as part of trying
> to help out with bug triage. i rather like it overall, and find it less
> unwieldy than the Web UI - thanks to those who have put it together! Still, i
> too have had some issues:
>
> Phillip Lord <address@hidden> writes:
>
>>  - After installing debbugs, there is no obvious entry  point. M-x 
>>    debugs-[tab] gives 30 different commands.
>
> Agreed; it took me a few moments to realise that debbugs-gnu was probably what
> i wanted.

Turns out that either "-gnu" or "-org" works fine. They just produce a
different UI. I think aliasing debbugs-gnu to debbugs would help.

>>  - debbugs-gnu list bugs from number 158 and upward; the entire  first
>> 500 is about emacs 23 pre-releases. If I want to get the    latest bugs,
>> they are on page 5.
>
> An argument could be made that the longest-outstanding issues should be
> displayed first, to try to encourage their resolution. Having said that, it
> could also be argued that their longevity means they're less likely to be able
> to be resolved soon than recent bugs. So i'm not sure what the best default is
> here.

I am very suspiscious about that. Most issue trackers are "most recent first".


>
>>  - On none of the debbugs pages are there any obvious menu items  or
>> bug-related functionality.
>
> Well, as usual in these situations, i used C-h m (`describe-mode`) to find out
> what i can do; but yes, it might be useful to at least have one or two lines
> of text describing at least some of the possible commands (and maybe also,
> what the colours in the `State` field indicate).
>
>>  - I found out about hitting "C" to send a control  message. Configuring
>> this to "mail client" and up pops thunderbird, although I am    a Gnus user.
>
> i'm a mu4e user, and when i try to send a control message .... Well, i'm not
> sure what happens. i get nothing to indicate a message was sent, but nothing
> to indicate it failed to be sent either. i can successfully use mu4e to reply
> to messages in the relevant bug thread, though.

And there is no where to practice! I might create a bug report just so I
can try setting some control messages on it.

> Finally, i'd like to suggest that the `debbugs` manual be renamed to something
> like `debbugs-dev`, and the `debbugs-ug` manual be renamed to `debbugs`. In
> trying to find out what the colours in the `State` field indicated, i ran the
> `info-display-manual` command and specified `debbugs`; the result ("Debbugs
> Programmers Manual") surprised me, and it took me a while to realise that
> there's a `debbugs-ug` ("Debbugs User Guide") manual. My guess is that many
> more people are going to want to use the latter than the former; hence my
> rename suggestion. Perhaps it might also be useful to link to the User Guide
> from the `debbugs` UI?

Yes, this makes sense to me also.

Phil