[OpenLayers-Dev] Github or Trac?

[Christopher Schmidt]

Hi,

Since the switch to Github, it appears that the OpenLayers project
now uses two different mechanisms to manage incoming issues and 
tickets: Trac and Github issues.

Right now, the project appears to have a number of pages directing
new users to file tickets in trac, such as:

  http://trac.osgeo.org/openlayers/wiki/FilingTickets
  http://trac.osgeo.org/openlayers/wiki/FrequentlyAskedQuestions#SVN
  http://trac.openlayers.org/ being linked as 'support and development'
  from the homepage.

It appears that new tickets are being created by users in trac at a
rate of about 2 per week -- 20 issues created in the past 8 weeks, and
741 open tickets, 43 awaiting review.

In github, there are 109 open issues. Approximately 10 new issues are
being created per week (40 in the last 18 days). The only obvious
reference to Github anywhere in the OpenLayers project is a single 'Fork
us on GitHub' link. (There are a couple other links in the trac wiki,
but they're hidden relatively well, compared to the 'how to file a bug',
and don't make it clear that tickets should be filed on github.)

It looks like the question of where tickets should be made has been
asked before on the mailing list, with no answer:

 http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/openlayers-dev/2012-January/008345.html

It was also informally discussed prior to that:
 http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/openlayers-dev/2011-October/008137.html

but it isn't obvious that any decision was made from that discussion;
I don't see any discussion of what actions would need to be taken
in order to shift development to the Github issue tracker (like, for
example, updating our webpage to direct people there instead of to trac
when filing new issues).

It seems that developers are now closing trac tickets as duplicates of
unsolved Github issues:

  https://github.com/openlayers/openlayers/issues/392
  http://trac.osgeo.org/openlayers/ticket/3649

In the past, I might have requested a vote, but it seems like a vote is
really not even a plausible approach to the question at this point:
what's done is done. If developers can confirm that OpenLayers is
intending all future development to take place using the Github issue
tracker, and that the trac issue tracker is now a dead end, then it
would probably be best for new developers if a plan could be developed
to help migrate the existing trac system into Github, starting with
migrating links for development moving to Github instead of Trac as the
recommended source.

I look forward to any feedback from the active developers on how
development is intended to work :)

Best Regards,
-- 
Christopher Schmidt
Web Developer