Re: sendsms help

[Pawel Kot]

Hi Roberto,

On 5/7/07, Roberto Verzola <address@hidden> wrote:
> > No. We don't support any other version than the latest. It is my fault
> > that we had not release since long time and we used this 'try the
> > latest release' too often.
>
> Would like to carry this discussion further. Hope that's ok. My suggestion was
> not about supporting old versions, but understanding bugs in the software: in
> which part of the code they are hiding in, and what kind of bug are they.

While I agree in general, we're facing the problem of focusing on
gnokii development or on gnokii bugs that noone really care. The most
common situation is that someone reports the bug, we ask for more
information and we get nothing.

> If the response to the bug report had been: "use v.xxx because that version
> corrects the bug", then I'd know that the gnokii developers had identified
> the bug and actually corrected it. But if the response is "use v.xxx, maybe
> it will work for you", then the developers would not have learned anything
> from the bug report.

Please keep in mind, that answering person may not know all the bugs
fixed. If someone reports problem in gnokii 0.6.5 which is 3 years old
even I don't remember all bugs fixed.
But I agree that phrasing "maybe it will work for you" is incorrect.
I'd say "verify that bug in the recent version and report in in the
way it occurs there". It is usually easier for the reporter to
reproduce the bug than for us.

> > This is not always true. In most cases disappeared bugs mean someone
> > found them and fixed them.
>
> "Most cases?" You'd know only if you actually checked the bug first... In this
> case, the more appropriate response would have been something like: "yes, we
> know this bug and v.xxx fixes them; use this version or later".

That would require few things. First of all: keep the track of all
bugs. I know we suck, that we don't do it. But it is one of the most
time consuming things in the project maintainance. Second, it would
require us to understand all the ways the bug could appear. Notice
that there are bugs reported in the versions (3 years old!) that some
of the developers didn't even hear about gnokii.

That said, I think we should focus on the issues that people do care.
Upgrading gnokii version is an easy task. If anyone doesn't want to
spend 15 minutes doing this, we have more important things to do. If
the problem comes back from different directions we really do take
care of the problem.

> > Please stand up and analize the reported bugs for us.
>
> I was initially hesitant to post my suggestion because I half-expected this
> kind of response. And I would have wanted to help, except that I program in
> python and not C.

I didn't mean to be any kind of rude. But the reality is that my free
time gets more limited every year. And we have less developers than we
had 5 years ago (maybe that means that Linux does not need a mobile
phone suite). And I think Python programmer would be valuable for us
as well.

> Let me say in closing that gnokii is a great piece of software and the
> developers are doing a heroic job. Please take my suggestion in the spirit of
> a constructive proposal to improve the quality of the software further.

I do. But again, here is what choice do I have. Analize by myself
every bug reported to whichever version, even given no information, on
the platform/architecture I don't have with dinosaur era phone or do
some fun stuff: sniff and guess communication on new functionality,
support modern s60 3rd rev phones. If someone is willing to help us in
gnokii development he/she is very welcome. Even helping us with bug
management, keeping docs up to date, maintainig web site and wiki or
doing simple programming tasks is very very welcome!

take care,
pkot
--
Pawel Kot