Re: Getting a move on for 8.2 beta - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

From Andrew Dunstan
Subject Re: Getting a move on for 8.2 beta
Date
Msg-id 44FB9047.6000308@dunslane.net
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: Getting a move on for 8.2 beta  (Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>)
Responses Re: Getting a move on for 8.2 beta  (Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>)
Re: Getting a move on for 8.2 beta  (Lukas Kahwe Smith <smith@pooteeweet.org>)
List pgsql-hackers

Bruce Momjian wrote:
> Oh, so the bug is tracked by being part of the email reply list.  That
> is a good idea.  Now, how does that get assigned for non-bugs, like
> patches?  Does any email sent to the lists that doesn't already have a
> bug number get one?  That might be really valuable.
>
>   

It would just clog the bug tracker and make it unusable.

I spent months on a working party on these and similar issues a few 
years back, in a commercial setting. One of the big issues is when you 
start tracking something. Bugs are a pretty simple case. Features are 
much harder to handle. Someone comes up with an idea. There is a lot of 
discussion. a consensus is arrived at to go forward. I think that's the 
point at which we start tracking, but it's a judgement call. What is we 
decide not to go ahead? Do we capture that in the tracker (with a 
resolution of "rejected")?

One useful idea, not implemented by any of the OSS tracking / SCM 
systems that I know of, is to tie the two together, i.e every commit 
relates to a tracker item which captures the major discussions 
surrounding it.  (If there isn't a bug, it prompts you to start one, 
which you can immediately mark as fixed if necessary). That way you can 
go backwards and forwards between the code and the discussion that led 
to it easily. Trust me, once you have worked with such a system you 
appreciate the benefits.

Anyway, let me reiterate: bz has at least the start of an email reply 
facility, and making that work if it doesn't already should not be 
beyond us.

cheers

andrew


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