Reporting bugs: there is nothing to gain in frustrating reporters

[Giovanni Bajo]

Roberto Bagnara <bagnara@cs.unipr.it> wrote:

> 1) I submit a bug report;
> 2) someone looks at it superficially, too superficially, and
>     posts a comment that tends to deny there is a problem;
> 3) I and/or someone else explain that the problem is indeed
>     there, possibly citing the points of the standards that
>     are being violated;
> 4) the person who said the bug was not (exactly) a bug does
>     not even care to reply, but the superficial comments
>     remain there, probably killing the bug report.

While I agree that it can happen to make a too superficial comment on a bug
(I surely had done this in the past, and Andrew seems to do this very
often), I believe that this does not spoil or kill the bug report itself,
once it was agreed that there is indeed a bug.

Surely, it does annoy the reporter though, which is a serious problem.

> I wonder what is the rationale here.  Discouraging bug
> reporters may be an effective way to avoid bug reports pile up,
> but this is certainly not good for GCC.

I totally agree here. I believe Mark already asked us (bugmasters) to be
more polite in their work, and I believe that another official statement in
this direction would help.

> My advice to people filtering bug reports is: if you only had
> time to look at the issue superficially, either do not post
> any comment or be prepared to continue the discussion on more
> serious grounds if the reporter or someone else comes back
> by offering more insight and/or precise clauses of the
> relevant standards.

Agreed. But keep in mind that it is not necessary to reply: once the bug is
open and confirmed, the last comment "wins", in a way. If the bugmaster
wanted to close it, he would just do it, so an objection in a comment does
not make the bug invalid per se.
-- 
Giovanni Bajo