Hi all,
Last fall, I put out an e-mail message suggesting community bug
squashing days- http://markmail.org/message/22six3nkgbhr3f3t. It
received some support at the time, but I didn't do any follow-through to
make it happen.
Last week, I took some time to update a local spreadsheet I'm
maintaining on Launchpad bugs that are important to libraries in the
three MassLNC networks. I was pleased to remove some bugs that have
since been fixed, but then I added a whole lot more. We started with
about 50 bugs on the list, and the number is now at 83. These numbers
reminded me of how it important it is that we try to allocate some time
on a community level to fix bugs.
I have a more formal proposal I would like to put forward and, if it's
agreeable to others, I commit to doing my part to try to make these days
happen.
Proposal: Evergreen Bug Squashing Days
Goal: The goal of bug squashing days is for contributors and volunteers
to commit the entire day to the following activities:
* Fixing bugs
* Testing bugs that have pullrequests
* General bug wrangling activities (confirming bugs, marking duplicates,
etc.)
* Pushing bug fixes into Evergreen (for core committers)
When:
I'm proposing that we try to schedule bug squashing days on a quarterly
basis. I was thinking August/November/February/May would be a good
schedule where the bug squashing days aren't running up against an
Evergreen release.
What is Needed:
* Somebody to work on scheduling the day and set up a wiki page (I
volunteer, but am happy to hand off the task or work with somebody else
if needed.)
* Volunteers willing to devote a day of their time to the above
activities. These volunteers do not need to just be developers or sys
admins. Anyone can confirm bugs, look for duplicates, or perhaps team up
with a sys admin to test patches.
Extras:
The idea for these bug squashing days came from similar days organized
by the Koha community.
http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Category:Global_bug_squashing_days.
They do a couple of things that I would love to see for Evergreen bug
squashing days.
* The Koha community uses this great scoreboard on bug squashing days -
http://scoreboard.koha-community.org/. The code for the scoreboard is
available at https://gitorious.org/scoreboard/scoreboard. It would be
great if we had a volunteer who was willing to create a similar
scoreboard for Evergreen bug squashing days.
* The Koha community also has Sandboxes available that makes it easier
for librarians to test patches. It may be a little difficult to pull
together something for Evergreen that's as automated as these
Sandboxes, but I think it's worthwhile to set a goal to eventually have
some Sandbox servers available to the Evergreen community where patches
can be tested (not just on Bug Squashing days).
I've also added this proposal to the agenda for Monday's developers
meeting. If there is general support for this idea, then I'll put out a
Doodle poll next week to see if we can schedule a day.
Thanks all!
Kathy
--
Kathy Lussier
Project Coordinator
Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
(508) 343-0128
[email protected]
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier
