From owner-freebsd-doc Fri May 24 15:46:30 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Received: from mailsrv.otenet.gr (mailsrv.otenet.gr [195.170.0.5]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 957A637B40C for ; Fri, 24 May 2002 15:46:22 -0700 (PDT) Received: from hades.hell.gr (patr530-b130.otenet.gr [212.205.244.138]) by mailsrv.otenet.gr (8.12.3/8.12.3) with ESMTP id g4OMkHuW017179; Sat, 25 May 2002 01:46:18 +0300 (EEST) Received: from hades.hell.gr (hades [127.0.0.1]) by hades.hell.gr (8.12.3/8.12.3) with ESMTP id g4OMkGRV006564; Sat, 25 May 2002 01:46:16 +0300 (EEST) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: (from charon@localhost) by hades.hell.gr (8.12.3/8.12.3/Submit) id g4OMiV0C006554; Sat, 25 May 2002 01:44:31 +0300 (EEST) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Date: Sat, 25 May 2002 01:44:31 +0300 From: Giorgos Keramidas To: Jim Theriault Cc: doc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Problem Report Handling Guidelines Message-ID: <20020524224431.GA6469@hades.hell.gr> References: <3CEE5EC7.9322930C@nbnet.nb.ca> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <3CEE5EC7.9322930C@nbnet.nb.ca> User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.99i Sender: owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On 2002-05-24 12:39, Jim Theriault wrote: > > I would propose that if one wants to report a problem, they should > provide the means to reproduce it and the source code to demonstrate how > it can be fixed. > > It just seems like the right thing to do. Seems like a nice idea. The developers will always feel the warm, fuzzy happiness when a patch arrives with the problem report. However, asking for *everyone* to submit a patch is a bit of an overkill. Some times, just reporting that there is a problem, is all a user can do. At those times, someone else has to verify that the problem exists, which might take some time. Still, having the report in the database, in a central, searchable, well-known place, is a good thing too. FreeBSD users should be encouraged to submit problem reports even when they do not know the fix, IMHO. Just like a reader who doesn't understand SGML can still be of tremendous assistance to the documentation team, by proof-reading all the documents on www.FreeBSD.org and pointing out typographical errors, grammar or syntax mistakes etc., in the very same way a FreeBSD user who reports a problem, but doesn't know how to solve it by himself, is making a very valuable contribution too. I'd still like contributions like these to live in Gnats. This makes it easier for people who might know how to help, to search for problem reports and do something about them. But this is all, of course, just my opinion on the matter. -- Giorgos Keramidas - http://www.FreeBSD.org keramida@FreeBSD.org - The Power to Serve To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message