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[Carthik Sharma]

On 12/12/06, Christian Robottom Reis <kiko at async.com.br> wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 12, 2006 at 11:13:43AM -0500, Carthik Sharma wrote:
> > On 12/12/06, Christian Robottom Reis <kiko at async.com.br> wrote:
> > >
> > >To ensure the message is across: we want both confirmation (or
> > >invalidation) of bugs, and indication of what source package(s) they are
> > >related to. You get extra good vibes if you add upstream bug watches for
> > >the upstream bugs, but the thing I'm really looking for is confirmation
> > >and source package indication.
> >
> > I have tried my hand at tackling this exact subset of bugs before. The
> > biggest problem is that a majority of the bugs cannot be assigned a
> > package -- "Ubuntu" -- best describes where the bug belongs. A bug
> > entitled "(K)Ubuntu crashes frequently" is one example. Others deal
> > with specific laptops/hardware and so it may not be evident which
> > package the bug belongs to. My rough estimate is that about 100-200
> > bugs of the lot will be of this kind - where a package isn't obvious.
>
> Yeah, finding out what package(s) a bug stems from is a non-trivial
> exercise. Sometimes you get lucky, and sometimes you can call in a
> "consultant" in the figure of a developer once you have a log, stack
> trace or way to reproduce the error. So for these bugs in particular you
> really want to interact with the reporter to collect data to try and
> close the circle a bit. You can also kick a lot of them into NeedsInfo
> -- and we could forseeably autoclose the NeedsInfo after a while if no
> reply came back.
>
> I do believe, however, that all bugs will either be Invalid or live in a
> package, so it's a matter of trying harder. And ask me if you need help
> with triaging or with Malone -- I /really want/ to give out this bounty
> :-)

With Malone - why I just had this thought that for each of the
packages that are listed when you open the small "select the package"
window, it would be great if that was a expand/shrink widget that
shows what the package is about when you click on the expand/shrink
button. Often, I have to go to package.ubuntu.com to look up which
package would be most appropriate. To elaborate -- searching for
"alsa" brings up a lot many packages with "alsa" in their name - like
alsa-oss, alsa-driver etc. Finding out which one might be the package
responsible for the problem at hand would be a lot easier if there
were descriptions of the packages (Even like the ones at
packages.ubuntu.com) for each item.

On a meta-level it would be cool if we could specify a given problem
as a "usb" or "sound" or "codec" or "GNOME" problem and move on from
there - since not everyone is an expert at everything Ubuntu includes.
The subject-expert-triagers could then start from the bugs that belong
to their sub-domain, and mark them with the correct packages. This
"wish" is highly impractical now, perhaps, so I will take the first
solution I suggested above.

Thanks for you offer for help with Malone :)

Carthik.
>
> > >On Tue, Dec 12, 2006 at 02:17:34PM +0100, Henrik Nilsen Omma wrote:
> > >> I think zero is a difficult task though because two new ones will always
> > >> sneak in at the end. But you can of course determine that by looking at
> > >> the dates.
> > >
> > >You're right -- but I want to see that number get down to one digit, and
> > >stay there. I know there is a lot of up-front work that needs to be
> > >done, which is why I'm putting up this bounty (and also because movies
> > >are always good karma!), but I want us to keep the number down once
> > >we're there! I'll be okay with is stipulating an error margin of 20
> > >bugs, but I'll be even happier with a hard zero!
> >
> > Nice bounty though! Let me take a crack at getting there :)
>
> I can even suggest some good movies if you don't have your own list ;-)
> --
> Christian Robottom Reis | http://async.com.br/~kiko/ | [+55 16] 3376 0125
>


-- 
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Central Florida
Homepage: http://carthik.net