<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META NAME="Generator" CONTENT="MS Exchange Server version 6.5.7036.0">
<TITLE>Migration to SourceForge tracker?</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<!-- Converted from text/rtf format -->
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Seeing as we are now using subversion (yay!), and moving to a more de-centralised development model, maybe it's time (or after the project namechange anyway) to start using the SourceForge bug and feature-request tracker? (Or another tracker.) This would enable all the developers and users to track the outstanding bugs instead of just Henrik. I've noticed in the past that Henrik is very quick at fixing the critical bugs and core dumps (thanks), but other less critical ones (in trunk) seem to be outstanding for many months. Having a public bug tracker would:</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">(a) enable users to contribute to bugs via confirmation of the bug, narrowing down of the cause(s) / scenarios, testing of patches, etc.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">(b) ensure bugs (and feature requests) don't get forgotten about;</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">(c) more easily allow other developers to create patches;</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">(d) facilitate the release process by being able to see what might need fixing / doing / adding before the next release; (I believe 4.3.0 is about a year overdue, but unfortunately trunk still isn't stable…)</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">(e) increase the acceptance of Hobbit by users / companies, as it would increase the signs of life of the project (if used properly), the signs of support (in terms of bug fixing), etc.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">(f) encourage people posting bugs that someone who might fix their bug might (eventually) see their bug post! ;)</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">In terms of the stability of hobbit, if new features are going to be added, isn't it time we branched 4.3 off from trunk? (So we don't add new bugs to the 4.3 branch and further delay the release. Or has this already been done?) Personally, I would have liked this to have happened this time last year after Henrik announced 4.3.0 was nearly ready, instead of adding new features since then. What would have happened, I suppose, is the current trunk would have developped into 4.4.0. (If someone particularly wanted a specific new feature from trunk in 4.3, they could backport the patch. This would be facilitated if patches were uploaded to the bug tracker for these new features when, or preferably before (thereby increasing the stability of trunk by allowing testing of the patch first), checking in to trunk.) I expect nearly everyone knows an open-source project that works like this, but Asterisk is one that works well in this way, with hundreds of people submitting patches to their customised Mantis bug tracker.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Kind regards,</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">SebA </FONT>
<BR><FONT COLOR="#808080" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial"> </FONT>
</P>
</BODY>
</HTML>