Re: Suggestion for a new GNATS policy

[Daniel Berlin <dberlin at dberlin dot org>]

On Monday, May 12, 2003, at 10:39  AM, Wolfgang Bangerth wrote:

> > That's the easy (for me) way:
> > You can unset-reset the flag.
> > Then the bug activity looks like:
> > Who					When			    Removed	Added
> > root@danberlin.com  	2003-05-11 23:42  			Flag minimized+
> > root@danberlin.com		2003-05-11 23:42	Flag minimized+
> > root@danberlin.com 	2003-05-11 23:43 			Flag minimized+
>
> That's gross.
>
>
> > I just need to know *what* type of query you want to do on this flag,
> > so i can make it appear on the query form for you
>
> Two types of queries:
> - never (re)confirmed
> - not reconfirmed in last X days
That's fine. These are easy queries, actually.

> Sorting by the last reconfirmation date would be fine, but if we don't
> have it, nobody will bother either.
I can add it to the "Sort results by" dropdown without any trouble.

> > That's a useful *description*, not a useful *summary*.
> > The summary field is what is displayed on the bug lists by default.
> > The description field is display on the full bug display.
> > A useful summary of this bug would be "template-id not silently
> > decaying to PTF" or something.
> > Who wants to read half a paragraph for each bug to determine if it's
> > something they want to even click on to see more about?
>
> Having looked at probably >1000 reports, the conclusion is: there's no
> short summary in most cases (believe me). "ICE with templates" is short
> but useless.
>
> Truncating the summary line is really bad, since if there is no short
> summary, a truncated one is just as good as none at all.

Like I said in an email a minute account, I forgot until i looked at  
the template that this is actually a preference defaulting to truncate,  
but you can change it through "change columns" to make it display the  
whole thing.

I changed the default white background to alternate between gray and  
white per row, so one doesn't get easily messed up trying to follow  
which values go with which multi-line summary.



> > > This is because the synopsis is cut off, it's not because of the
> > > stamps. GNATS does not have such a problem because the whole synopsis
> > > is always shown.
> > I can do this trivially, but i haven't heard any complaints except  
> > from
> > you (counting this as a complaint).
>
> Here's #2.
>
>
> > go to http://dberlin.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=10734
> >
> > I can make a radio button labeled "Reconfirm" (right under "Leave as
> > NEW") for you  guys if you want, so it's just "select reconfirm, click
> > commit".
>
> That's cool. I also like the "minimized" and "verified" flags (which
> indeed are really boolean flags).

Should these two flags be requestable of people?
IE do you want to be able to request that Giovanni (or yourself) verify  
or minimize a bug?
It then does three things when you request it:
1. It emails him (obviously) saying you've requested it.
2. It shows up in the "My requests" report you can access through the  
link at the bottom.
3. The bug report has the flag listed like: "giovannibajo: verified?"  
while waiting for him to set it or not set it.

Gives you an explicit work queue, so to speak.

It can be turned on and off (the requestability that is), so you don't  
have to make a final decision about it, just a guess as to whether you  
think it's useful to start.  It may be a hassle, i'm not familiar with  
how much work it is for you guys to track this stuff on your own.


> Thanks for you work and responsiveness on all this, Daniel!
Sorry if i seem argumentative or angry at times.
 Finally done with exams, and had massive headaches the past few days.
Don't take it personally.
:P
> W.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> --
> Wolfgang Bangerth              email:             
> bangerth@ices.utexas.edu
>                                www:  
> http://www.ices.utexas.edu/~bangerth/