Re: Why Emacs needs a modern bug tracker

[Chris Ball]

Hi,

   >> I wasn't very clear, there.  Of course users need web forms, and
   >> they will manipulate the database directly.  But why can't we have
   >> VCS updating, too?  This will allow RMS and others to work
   >> offline, a very desirable thing.

   > A VCS-based solution would be more complicated than
   > necessary. Easier just to write a w3m-based client that pulls a
   > copy of the entire bug database out of the tracker.

Just for the record, DVCS-based bug databases *do* exist, and allow the
offline working we're looking for while also allowing a user-friendly
web-based interface.  The two interfaces can exist without friction --
it's a distributed VCS, and the web interface becomes just one more
repository performing push and pull operations on the master database.

One such bugtracker is "Bugs Everywhere":

   http://www.panoramicfeedback.com/opensource/index.html

I think it's appealing to have a checkout of the bug database available
alongside a source code checkout.  Bugs Everywhere is not finished yet,
but can use many different VCS backends including arch, bzr and hg.
I have a small patch to add GIT support to it, too.

   http://dev.laptop.org/~cjb/libbe-git.patch

It's great to see a discussion about workflow improvements happening
here.  I'd like to help if I can.

- Chris.
-- 
Chris Ball   <address@hidden>