On 2008-03-19 11:00 AM, Cor Nouws wrote:
Hi Bret,
Bret Busby wrote (19-3-2008 15:37)
Could you please explain the procedure in issueTracker? I do not know
of that.
All you would like to know, and probably much more ;-) can be found here:
http://qa.openoffice.org/ooQAReloaded/ooQA-IssueRules.html
"much more" is a complete understatement. Bless the programmers for
working on this project, but many areas in which broader public
participation would so benefit progress are completely hostile to the
average non-programming person. As an applications consultant with 20
years of experience in my field, frequently pitching in as a Beta-tester
and dedicated to filing good bug reports based on structured testing
when I'm reasonably come up with something worth reporting ... I gave up
on filing OOo bug reports after two attempts.
Why put up a page that requires the general public to read thousands of
words and grok 5 levels of "P" and spend hours and require that folks
flail around on the site or post questions to mailing lists in order to
figure out what (to a non-programmer) a completely unintelligible list
of components/subcomponents means and which one (and ONLY one) to choose??
I gave it two or three tries and gave up untll such a day that OOo
provides an end-user oriented, friendly page for filing bug reports.
Persons with knowledge of how application development projects are run,
and with knowledge of the components and subcomponents of the underlying
code, could then quickly categorize and "P number" and check for dupes,
and they would do it more accurately, and you guys would get much
stronger participation from the public to help refine OOo towards
excellence and broader acceptance out in the marketplace.
With all due respect to everyone involved in the project. With all
admiration for the intent of it. But, candidly, I have *tried* to be a
contributor first via joining up to do QA on the Mac port, and then
simply as a hoping-to-be-helpful end user. I gave up. The whole thing is
just geared to folks who make applications and not to those who use them.
I have stated this strongly but, honestly, only in the spirit of a
"light slap". I read over and over on the OOo lists how folks just
ought to go over to such and such a page and read the instructions,
pages that often take one in circles, pages that use language and with
knowledge requirements that only serve to discourage and not encourage
deeper participation by "the non-programming hordes". As a business
analyst who works closely with end-users and programmers, I say this
with professional confidence. The whole project, including perhaps the
only area in which non-programmers can help out -- bug reporting and QA
testing -- does not seem put together with the intent of making the
general public feel welcome and secure about participating. Rewrite that
bug-reporting UI. Make it 4 fields long: WP/spreadsheet/etc. and "All"
checkboxes; "what were you doing when...?", "what did you expect to
happen"?, and "what did happen?". That's all that should be required for
regular folks to file a problem.
Hope the light slap helps and not hurts,
kazar
--
Datatude, Ltd. -- http://www.datatude.net/
strategies & solutions
"Tools of Choice" forums at http://network.datatude.net/
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
