Re: Bug process thoughts

[Michael Twomey <michael twomey ireland sun com>]

Sorry its taken me so long to reply but I've been most of the week.


Christian Rose wrote:
> 
> Michael Twomey wrote:
> >         I wanted to ask what are people's views on the l10n/i18n bug fixing
> > process in Gnome? My current understanding is that people have to
> > contact the relevant language team about linguistic or technical (e.g.
> > screwed up messages) problems.
> 
> That's probably true for many (or most) language teams, yes. If
> something is very broken (e.g. preventing a successful build of the
> module, or a pure technical error in the translation file), sometimes
> also module maintainers fix it, to save some time.
> 

This is why I would like a bugzilla category for this since it means
that someone working on localisation can fix these technical errors
without the maintainer needing to do anything.

> > There doesn't seem to be any field in
> > bugzilla.gnome.org which allows people to file bugs about l10n problems.
> 
> As I understand, there were plans on adding a "translation" or "i18n"
> bug reporting section to the individual bugzilla.gnome.org components,
> but I don't know how that endend. You could try asking about the
> bugzilla stuff on gnome-hackers, that seems to be the place where
> bugzilla topics is discussed and planned.
> 

Ok I'll try that thanks.

> > The reason I'm asking this is that I would like to define a simple
> > process which allows people to quickly and easily log bugs (for example
> > Sun's test engineers or linguists) about localisation problems
> 
> Yes, I think that's a great idea. Some people don't like asking on a
> completely unknown mailing list, and having a bug forum is also a way
> better form of tracking the issue.
> 
> > and then allow people who aren't directly part of the language teams (such as Sun
> > engineers like me) to come in and fix a problem.
> 
> Hmm, I still think people in the language teams are the best to fix pure
> linguistic problems... I think the i18n bugs should be assigned to
> whoever did the translation for that module. I have no problem with Sun
> dudes for example being put as QA responsible for the individual bugs
> (there is such a field in Bugzilla).
> But, as I said, I think the bugs should primarily be fixed by whoever
> introduced them in the first place, otherwise you never learn ;-)
> That's really not very different from the situation for coders, the
> person assigned to fix bugs are those who are responsible for that code.
> 

True but from the point of view of getting bugs fixed it would be useful
to look at the status of a gnome app or gnome as a whole in bugzilla and
zero in on problem areas which you can fix if you feel urgent.

> I think Bugzilla is very limited though when it comes to multiple
> "default owners" to a single module/component (only one is allowed), so
> maybe it has to be a Sun dude assigned after all (but I still think the
> responsible translator should be contacted and allowed to fix his
> error).
> 

I don't think there needs to be multiple owners. It would be nice if
there was a way to have a default mailing list bug reports get sent to
so people could track languages that interest them.

> > I know this might sound a bit odd trying to formalize the translation
> > process
> 
> Formalizing is good. :-)
> 
> > but I think it will make it much simpler and less intimidating
> > for people to come in and find/fix problems in the future.
> 
> Hmm, I always find it intimidating when other people fix problems with
> my stuff... That's why I want to be informed so I can fix it myself :)
> 

Well I thought this was part of Open Source :) If the problem is in
bugzilla and you come in the next day to see it marked as fixed then you
can see what the fix is without any big surprises.

just a few thoughts,
	mick
-- 
Michael Twomey
These opinions are my own and do not represent Sun unless otherwise
stated.
Sun Microsystems, Dublin, 8199164, x19164
"Fly my little Makefiles! Fly!"