NEEDINFO about NEEDINFO

[Derek Atkins]

Chris Shoemaker <c.shoemaker at cox.net> writes:

>> I browse through the gnucash bugs, the NEEDINFO ones are listed for me as 
>> well.)
>
> True.  I also use a "needinfo" saved report.  Browsing that for a few
> weeks is actually what prompted my email.

I just include "NEEDINFO" in my saved queries..  I have two saved
queries, "My GnuCash Bugs" and "All GnuCash Bugs"..  And NEEDINFO is
included in both of them, so I always see them.

>> >   1a) Stack traces with debugging symbols are always useful, even if
>> > the reporter doesn't know what they were doing when it occurred.
>> > These shouldn't be marked NEEDINFO.
>> 
>> No, I don't agree in general. For example, if the bug report
>> doesn't mention the gnucash version (1.8? SVN?), then the stack
>> trace can be from whatever gnucash version has been released. In
>> those cases a stack trace by itself is IMHO not at all useful, and
>> unless there has been more info added, the report will be closed as
>> INVALID.
>
> I disagree.  The stack trace contains a lot of useful information.
> Even when no version is given, the file date and the stack trace
> itself often constrain the possible version narrowly.  Of course we
> should ask for version info, but a stack trace is a valid and very
> useful bug report by itself.  I came across two cases where a
> beautiful stack trace was sitting unnoticed (by me, at least) in
> NEEDINFO.  Finally noticing it significantly improved my understanding
> of other, similar stack traces.  In one of those cases, noticing it
> sooner would have saved me some time.
>
> Interpreting a stack trace with no version information is more work,
> (although it's made easier by trac) but once the work is done, it's
> just as valuable as a report _with_ version information.

I'm not sure how trac makes it easier to divine the actual version
number that was used.  But a stack trace without a version and without
a "this is what I was doing at the time" is /nearly/ useless..  Not
COMPLETELY useless, but not necessarily easy to use, either.

-derek
-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available