[GRASS-dev] trac management - was ticket #110

[Glynn Clements]

Markus Neteler wrote:

> > > > >  [please respond in trac, grass-dev cannot post to trac]
> > > >
> > > > Actually, I'd really prefer it if we could keep discussions on the
> > > > mailing list. trac can be updated when issues get resolved.
> > >
> > >
> > > The issue is (here) that eg Even Rouault (GDAL developer) who responded
> > to
> > > the DBF ticket AFAIK does not read the grass-dev list,
> >
> > There is an archive:
> >        http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/grass-dev/
> 
> I know, I have maintained it for 10 years meanwhile.
> The point is that non-subscribers won't detect postings there
> without being pointed to them.

Can the messages which trac sends to the list have the reporter's
address added to the To: or CC: fields? That way, they would normally
receive any follow-ups via email.

> > <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/grass-dev/> > likewise FrankW likely
> > prefers tickets over scattered discussion in our archive.
> 
> We cannot expect people like him who follow 10+ projects in parallel
> to voluntarily scan our archive.

OTOH, requiring that discussions are conducted via trac for the
benefit of non-subscribers is going too far in the other direction,
IMHO.

> > Would it be possible for trac to automatically add a link for the
> > mailing-list thread to the ticket?
> 
> 
> In theory yes:
> http://trac-hacks.org/wiki/EmailtoTracScript

That would be ideal, as it would eliminate the need for developers to
conduct discussions via trac.

However, all I was actually asking about was having a link to the
archived email added to the trac page. That would at least allow
people to find the discussion easily.

I suspect that this isn't trivial, as the email probably doesn't
appear in the archive until after trac has finished handling the
submission. So it probably can't be done in the main trac script;
however, it might be possible for the list manager to identify emails
which originate from trac and lack an In-Reply-To: header, and add a
reply to the appropriate trac entry.

> > > > Right now, my grass-dev folder consists mostly of posts by "GRASS
> > > > GIS", with no threading.
> > >
> > >
> > > We can rename it to "GRASS trac" easily (in Admin). Makes more sense.
> >
> >
> > The point is that it doesn't tell you who actually posted the message.
> > This makes it awkward to find a particular message in a long thread.
> 
> OK, now I get the point.
> 
> We have to check
>  http://trac-hacks.org/wiki/macro
>  http://trac-hacks.org/wiki/patch
>  http://trac-hacks.org/wiki/plugin
> for a solution. We may not be the first to have this wish.

Probably not.

Since the web become popular, I've probably encountered hundreds of
web-based communication systems (online "forums", bug trackers, etc). 
And in every single instance where I've tried to use them for an
actual discussion (as opposed to: post a request, get a reply, end of
discussion), I end up wondering if I'm the only person in the world
who uses email.

Because in all that time, I haven't found even one web-based system
that isn't substantially less convenient than email.

And even if those web-based systems were all perfect (which is
certainly not the case), the comparison is still between using dozens
of different web-based systems and using a single mail program which I
have been using for over 10 years, and am very familar with, have
customised extensively, and is fully integrated with my text editor,
shell, spell checker, file manager, manual browser, code browser, etc.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn at gclements.plus.com>