Re: debbugs tracker builds character

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Wed, 20 Jul 2016 16:53:45 +0200 Michael Albinus <address@hidden> wrote: 

MA> Ted Zlatanov <address@hidden> writes:
>> I wish I knew why people find the current bug tracker acceptable. It
>> reminds me of the old ftpmail/DEC gatekeeper where you sent e-mails
>> requesting files:

MA> One of the requirements for a bug tracker for Emacs was, that it must be
MA> possible to control everything via email. That's one of the reasons
MA> debbugs was chosen.

IMHO that's not an actual requirement. It's an implementation detail.

The actual requirement was probably about disconnected operation or
something like that. It must accomplish something from the user's
viewpoint (and sending e-mail, in itself, does not accomplish anything).

On Wed, 20 Jul 2016 15:44:03 +0200 Lars Ingebrigtsen <address@hidden> wrote: 

LI> The web interface?  No, that's not a very pleasant interface, but I
LI> think `M-x debbugs-gnu' is a better bug tracker interface than most.  :-)

There's a separation between the UI and the underlying functionality.

IMHO, the underlying bug tracker is extremely limited.

IMVHO, the `M-x debbugs-gnu' UI is decent but only because of a lot of
hacking, and the same UI could be applied to other bug trackers. In
other words, the reasons why it's good are not due to the bug tracker. I
could be wrong on this, though, I don't know the internals well, I've
just looked through the code.

On Wed, 20 Jul 2016 16:58:24 +0200 Michael Albinus <address@hidden> wrote: 

MA> Patches welcome! Or at least precise proposals what you would like to
MA> get improved. "VCS integration" sounds too vague to me.

The bug tracker should be aware of repositories, branches, commits,
contributors, and ticket links or mentions in commit messages.
Contributors should be able to tag and notify each other. Markdown etc.
should be well supported. Inline code comments should be easy, and
linked to a commit (so an updated commit can resolve the comment). This
is just the essential stuff.

I think this is not something you can solve with patches or good UI. It
requires a tool architected correctly from the start. Such tools exist aplenty.

Ted