From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/35519 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Matt Swift Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.general Subject: Gnus development remains haphazard? Date: 28 Mar 2001 18:14:48 -0500 Organization: Boston Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: coloc-standby.netfonds.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1035171250 3529 80.91.224.250 (21 Oct 2002 03:34:10 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 03:34:10 +0000 (UTC) Return-Path: Original-Received: (qmail 21343 invoked by alias); 28 Mar 2001 23:15:18 -0000 Original-Received: (qmail 21338 invoked from network); 28 Mar 2001 23:15:18 -0000 Original-Received: from sunsite.dk (130.225.51.30) by gnus.org with SMTP; 28 Mar 2001 23:15:18 -0000 Original-Received: (qmail 23081 invoked by uid 509); 28 Mar 2001 23:15:11 -0000 Original-To: ding@gnus.org Original-Path: not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: emacs.ding Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: swift.shore.net Original-X-Trace: sunsite.dk 985821311 23075 206.243.167.24 (28 Mar 2001 23:15:11 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: news@sunsite.dk Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 23:15:11 +0000 (UTC) X-Authenticated: @ User-Agent: Gnus/5.090001 (Oort Gnus v0.01) Emacs/20.7 Original-Lines: 30 Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.gnus.general:35519 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.general:35519 I just read a thread here in which the question, does Oort Gnus have a set of particular goals? Replies suggested about half a dozen possible major goals. I've been away from this group for a while, but if this thread is indicative, Gnus is still being developed in a haphazard way. Perhaps before tackling those major new goals, it would be best to make development more efficient in general. A bug tracking system would be very helpful for all users, would avoid duplication of labor in analyzing and solving problems, and would increase the number of people who make occasional contributions of an analysis or fix. My impression is that for the last five years, bugs that are reported are not always analyzed, those that are analyzed are not always fixed, and fixes are not always incorporated into releases. One consequence of the difficulty of bug squashing in Gnus is that development efforts are often channeled instead toward new functionality, rather than making core functions more stable, sensible, documented, and versatile (not to mention accessible to new users, etc.). In addition, a bug tracking system is also an effective way to organize, coordinate, and focus development of new functionality -- a "wishlist" or "missing feature" bug. I don't have the resources or knowledge to establish a bug tracking system, but I can promise that I would use it, and I do believe that having one would "pay for itself" rather quickly with improvements in Gnus.