[support] Best way to fix a bug?

[Greg Knaddison - GVS]

On 9/12/07, Jim Smith <jsmith at wate.com> wrote:
> The one thing that these tips don't solve, though, is what to do when
> the maintainer doesn't respond quickly enough for my needs. Let's face
> it, some maintainers are more diligent than others for tackling bugs in
> the queue. I don't mean that as a slight in the least against the
> particular maintainer of the module I'm dealing with now. But generally
> speaking, I'd rather not be dependent on the maintainer if I'm in an
> urgent situation. And if I can find a solution, then I can contribute
> the patch, which is better still.

Whenever I visit an issue queue to submit a bug I try my best to take
5 minutes and read over the other issues in the queue.  If I see
duplicates I'll close one and link to the other.  If I see something
that's unclear or lacking information I'll make a comment and point
that out.  If I can find a fix (uncommon, but it happens) then I'll
suggest the idea.  Somehow maintainers are more likely to help me out
after I've done that ;)  That's one way of "building karma"
specifically with the module maintainer.  Karma is another potential
key to getting a response from maintainers.

Let's face it, maintainers work on their modules for a lot of
different reasons but "solving your problem" is rarely enough to
motivate them UNLESS they owe you because of your karma OR you are
paying them.  And you don't have to pay the maintainer - douggreen
obviously knows how to fix that bug.  You could put out a bounty for
him or someone else to fix it for 5.x.  After putting out a relatively
small bounty a few months ago I had fixes within 24 hours -
http://drupal.org/node/97888

I've added that bit about karma to the "getting bugs fixed faster" page.

In case your question is really "how can I start learning to program"
well then I suggest you join the Dojo -
http://groups.drupal.org/drupal-dojo and stop by #drupal-dojo

> To answer your question, yes, I did apply the patch. However, It appears
> that some of it failed, probably because the module had been modified.

So, the solution likely lies in figuring out what has changed and
manually applying the changes in the patch to the module.  Once you've
done that you could contribute it back.  And you should mark your
issue as "duplicate" status since it seems to be the same as the other
one.

Regards,
Greg

-- 
Greg Knaddison
Denver, CO | http://knaddison.com
World Spanish Tour | http://wanderlusting.org/user/greg