Thanks Bob and Richard for explaining this dilemma a bit! As programmer you should know, that sometimes it's hard to find an issue. And it's impossible, if you can't reproduce the problem somebody is having. That's why the reporter and the developer have to work together to solve the problem. Unfortunately I am often seeing issues in the FB issues list, where the developer is requesting for some more info, but the reporter is not responding anymore. E. g. issue 2028 is such a case. The reporter posted the issue, John needed more information, but just somebody else is answering saying he can't reproduce the problem. Luckily I could, so I created a simple test case for it with additional information. Though this is not the worst example, since the reporter already tried to give a test case with instructions to reproduce the problem. Other issues are just like "Firebug is not running for me. Fix it!" (this is what Richard described with the car example). So the main thing here, is that as reporter of an issue you should be at least responsive to the upcoming questions and cooperative enough to help the developer get the bug fixed. Just a few examples where this didn't work: issue 1941, 2216 and 2363. In the cases you really can't track down an issue to a small reproducable test case the Firebug Tracing Console might sometimes be helpful. The trace log at least could give the developer a hint where the problem lies even when he can't reproduce it by himself e. g. due to another system configuration. John let me join the team, because I created test cases for issues, the reporter didn't provide. Though it's hard to do so, because the developer has to spend a big part of his time trying to understand what a bug reporter might have thought and based on that having to figure out by himself how this problem is reproducable. We all want Firebug to improve. So let's work together to reach this goal!
Sebastian On Jul 29, 4:34 pm, Richard Quadling <[email protected]> wrote: > I take my car to the mechanic and tell him it is not working. > > The questions I would like to be asked at that stage would be... > > 1 - What happens? > 2 - What do you do to make it happen? > > If the mechanic is unsure, then maybe also ... > > 3 - What do you expect to happen? > > Now, some of these may be answerable by me. Some, through experience, > may be answerable by the mechanic. > > If I don't answer any of the questions, the mechanic is going to be in > a bit of a mess trying to find the fault before he can diagnose it and > repair it. > > And, after all of that, whether or not the car is fixed, I'm going to > get a bill. > > And if the mechanic is really good at his job (though not perfect), he > may be really popular. > > And experience will tell you that those that cooperate with the > mechanic, answer his questions calmly and politely, will almost > certainly get a better response that those that don't. Those that > don't will either not get a repaired car in any reasonable time or i > > Nearly all open source software is developed along community lines - > we all pull together. The vast majority of open source software is > developed voluntarily. If you had to pay for FireBug, how much would > you pay? Would you then expect a support contract? > > I used to have "Standing on the shoulders of some very clever giants." > in my signature. I think I'll probably change it to "Standing on the > shoulders of some very clever and generous giants.". > > The request for a test-case isn't a way to stop the problem being > fixed. It is part of the solution. But, unfortunately, it is a form of > triage. Many problems are reported which are quite plainly and > obviously due to the developer having NOT RTFM'd. > > Some problems are simply due to the developer being too "clever" for > their own good and ending up tying themselves in knots and wanting a > hand and then blaming the first tool that comes to hand. > > Many reasons. > > But. > > In all instances, if you can PROVE the problem, repeatedly and > reliably, then others can certainly help you. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Firebug" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/firebug?hl=en.
