KDE4.3 beta issues

[Ignazio Palmisano]

Derek Broughton wrote:
> Jerry Lapham wrote:
> 
>> On Thursday 21 May 2009 4:53:23 am Myriam Schweingruber wrote:
>>
>>>  Hint: if the automatic
>>> report starts with "no debugging symbols found" the report is useless,
>>> as it wasn't able to track down the error in the code.
>>>
>>> Sorry if this seems well know by some of you, but at Kubuntu and KDE
>>> we get tons of useless reports because of lacking debugging symbols,
>>> so I think it's worth mentioning.
>> Does that mean that if an app crashes in an official distribution, we
>> shouldn't send the automatic report if it starts with "no debugging
>> symbols found"?
> 
> I'm sure that's what was meant, but imo it's crazy.  If developers _really_ 
> want to get usable bug reports from ordinary users the debug versions of the 
> apps are what should be distributed.  Asking ordinary users to recompile 
> (which is what KDE will do, because they don't realize that in most cases we 
> can just download a -dbg package) will get zero response, and then the 
> developers close the bug for "insufficient information", creating 
> frustration all around.
> 
> Not to mention the fact that if an "official" version crashes, there's no 
> reason to automatically assume that one compiled with debug symbols will 
> crash, or crash in the same place.  It's not the same program.

I'd second that, plus the fact that a bug filed without debug symbols 
information is not necessarily useless. If the bug can be reproduced on 
the developer's machine by repeating the steps that the submitter has 
reported in detail (hopefully :) ) then the info is there for the 
debugger to find. Also, many people reporting bugs that look the same 
because they have the same origin will help triangulate or at least 
raise awareness that there are bugs in a certain portion of the code.
My 2c,
I.