[GRASS5] GRASS release policy needed

[Maciek Sieczka]

From: "Markus Neteler" <neteler at itc.it>

> Hi developers and power users,
>
> in June I made a try to release GRASS 6.0.1:
> http://grass.itc.it/pipermail/grass5/2005-June/018798.html
>
> It turned out to be more complicated:
> http://grass.itc.it/pipermail/grass5/2005-July/thread.html#18820
>
>
> Some observations
>
> 1. the bugtracker is full of (old) bugs

As I promised this I will try to take care of regarding 6.x bugs. Maybe 5.4+
as well. Sooner or later.

> 2. some of the bugs are known for years, but nobody is interested/able
>   to fix them
> 3. some of the well know bugs have hold the intended release, but see 2.

For a regular user the indicator of Grass stability and progress is not the
changelog, CVS content, all the Grass lists discussions and plans etc. The
regular user, beginner or Grass wannabie is mainly concerned with:

1. What functionality has been added when compared to previous release.
2. Have the bugs and doc insufficiencies/errors present in previous release
been fixed.

According to point 1 Grass is doing very good. User can see and feel that
Grass improves.

According to point 2 not really so good. As we all know, in spite of the
amount of fixes in the changelog, bugtracker is full of old bugs, sometimes
also bugs which actually got fixed, but where not closed by those who fixed.
Lack of comitment and coordination here.

Propably silly question, but what do I care - how do you think Grass could
obtain a developer dedicated only to fixing things? Not improving a lot, not
developing new wonders but "simply" cleaning up the code whenever a bug is 
reported, keeping in touch with reporters so they won't feel ignored, 
keeping docs actual, extending them whenever explanation is not sufficient, 
adding links to selected best, actual external sources of information on the 
topic? If not capable of doing the work alone, he would be in charge of 
gathering support, actively looking for relevant information and encouraging 
appropriate people to take care of/help with the issue, instead of waiting 
until somebody volunteers. Or at least he could recognize what are the 
chances that people capable of fixing the bug would do it and when. PR 
manager/developer?

If Grass would have someone like this, it's image would really improve in
the eyes of regular (naive?) users. "Look, any bug I report gets fixed
within a month. Kill me, them Grass coders are reliable. There is one
pending for ages but at least they never ignored my input." instead of
"Darn, I reported that bug half a year ago and nothing. They haven't even
replied.".

I guess that's how Grass users without insight into the Grass developement
more/less think. That's what I soemtimes thought until I started to read
Grass, Gdal, Proj, Freegis etc lists, building Grass and friends from
source, trying to help others with their problems with Grass. All that made
me realise all is not that simple and that I can't expect and demand (hard
to resist...), that I need to contribute somehow also, that developers are
giving their time with little or no direct financial reward, that it's hard
for them mantain somebody else's code. But regular Grass users, and, more
important, most future Grass users, are folks who install an rpm and join
the list when they have a problem. Or they fill in a bugtracker entry and
expect the bug to fixed - just because they report it.

I guess first reaction of most Grass developers would be "MOST of bugs are
getting fixed". Yes, most. But no matter how fast could you BMW be, how
shiny, modern, cool, how little gas it needs and how cheap (OK, not BMW) if
one tyre is flat. And even if the bug considered is not that serious as a
flat tyre, it cannot be neglected - becauase of the psychological aspect and
the publicity. Grass is not only as good as it is. It is rather as good as
it is appears/is known to be. When more people talk about Grass in bad
words, Grass is bad. And more people are more likely to talk bad about
Grass - because the majority of those who try Grass in future will be
complete ignorants, since Grass and friends are being shipped in debs and
rpms on a regular basis by all major distros. Plus Windows installers
comming soon (?), alert red. What's more, such people who install Grass
once, have their first problem (bugs will be always, even I know this) and
quit after a month of waiting for a remedy are the worse ones for Grass's
publicity, because it will be impossible to change their mind, since they
had quit. I can see there is a recognition for a need of support for
newbies - same and same questions are answered patiently by developers on
the list often, admire. Yet there is no such recognition in terms of bugs I
think. Bugs are neglected to often.

What's more, even if the bug gets fixed, the average bug reporter can't
benefit from that when he is not informed, which happens. And he has to at
least know it is fixed, becaue he won't be able to check for himself from
CVS. He will wait for next rpm/deb/exe instead. So release often,
absolutely. And inform always.

Reassuming, from my ex-naive, regular user point of view, any bugs reported
should be high on priority list. I'm going to help with that to the extent
I'm capable of - cleanup the bugtracker, help to manage it in future as time
allows. Yet a committed and really knowledgable general "fixing coordinator"
is highly required IMHO. But, who am I fooling - that would be a full time
job...

I hope my naiveness will be forgiven to me - anyway I compared Grass to BMW!

My 0,01 PLN.

Maciek

P.S.
I'm not writing this all to hold off 6.0.1 release, I hope it's clear. I
never meant it if that's your impression. Please release as you recon it's
best. I just find this an ocassion to rise the issue of bugs in Grass.