[Qgis-developer] Better bug squashing

[Paolo Cavallini]

Il giorno sab, 09/04/2011 alle 14.31 +0200, Ivan Mincik ha scritto:

> solutions, which can solve the problem of increasing number of
> unclosed bug reports which are degrading devs work and user
> impression.

I agree: this is a problem for the project.

> 1. Employ some new C++/Qt devs in software companies using QGIS and
> dedicate them to bug fixing.
... 
> bigger coding. This is not good idea.

Agreed.

> 2. Ask existing regular QGIS devs if they can spend more time with
> bugs, when we would collect some money covering their time.
> Again, if I can speak for my small company (located in poor EU country
> :)), we are able to send for example 100 EUR each month to bug fixing
> budget. If few other companies will join, we can have two half time
> employed devs solving bugs. Are there any hardcore devs interested ?
> What hourly rate do You expect ?

I think current devs are already overcommitted, with a few exceptions.
So it would be good if those who are available will clarify their
position, so some companies could have an option. I think we especially
need maintainers for unmaintained pieces of code.
> 3. Employ some new C++/Qt dev and dedicate him to create complete test suite.
> If new people are not good in bug fixing, they can be good to create
> good test suite for all basic parts of QGIS. Is there anybody able to
> design such tests and mentor developing ? We can find some skilled
> students for this task or pay dev from one time public budget
> collection.

I think bringing fresh blood in is the best option. However, this can be
expensive; I expect some of the larger institutions and companies that
are using QGIS as a part of their core business will jump in and
dedicate one or more developers. This is what is happening already, more
or less informally.

> 4. Establish QGIS QA team
> Establish QGIS QA team and group of testers to regulary test every
> supported platform against latest trunk. We would quickly address new

I think this is a huge task, that nobody is able to do on a purely
volunteer basis. Currently we rely on our growing user community to do
the testing, and this proves rather effective.

More comments welcome.
All the best.
-- 
http://www.faunalia.it/pc