Re: bug#13141: please review bug #13141

[Harald Hanche-Olsen]

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <address@hidden> (2013-01-20 07:19:10 UTC)]

> Experienced developers know that what experienced users "know" often
> enough just ain't so.
> 
> The only case where users are in a good position to decide is about
> privacy-sensitive information that might be in traces or keystroke
> logs, etc.

I admit to being one of those who routinely deletes much of the noise
before submitting a bug report. But then, whenever possible, I try to
figure out a way to reproduce the bug starting from emacs -Q. In which
case Major and minor modes, recent input, and recent messages are
truly irrelevant, and so I delete them before submitting the bug
report. (An extreme case is #11358, where I have deleted *all* the
predetermined info.) In any case, I hardly ever report a bug
immediately after encountering it. I am usually too busy trying to get
stuff done, so I finish that first, then investigate the bug,
typically in a separate emacs instance, and then submit a bug report.
In which case I am quite confident that recent input and messages are
beside the point, so I delete them. But perhaps I am very unusual as
bug reporters go.

In any case, I don't really see the need for more options. If I can
delete irrelevant parts from the bug reports, so can anybody else.
I don't think we need to make it any easier than it already is,
especially as it appears some people are already deleting more than
they should.

But perhaps they should be told, somehow, to review recent input and
messages for private content that they may not wish to reveal to the
world.

- Harald