[development] {Short issue queues need care - 4} critical issues on the rise again!

Sun Aug 6 17:45:24 UTC 2006

Hello and welcome to the fourth edition of {Short issue queues need care}.

This week:
1} Report on progress since last time.
2} Featured short issue queues.
3} Why this report and how to cooperate?

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1} Report on progress since last week.
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I apologize for the few weeks lapse since the last report. 

The ready-to-be-committed issue queue is no longer featured in this report. 
Dries has dealt with the old RTBC 4.6 issues.
The RTBC queue is the only one that is permanently very short. 
Thank you to Dries, Neil, Gerhard and Steve.

List manager: is it possible to know how many people are subscribed to this 
list?
If a portion of those, say 20 developers and reviewers, pick a list below and 
help sort one or two issues, each list should be somewhat shorter next week.

The queues featured below are all short. Select one and see if you can help 
bring the number of issues down by one or two until next week.

Thank you for your cooperation.

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2} Featured short issue queues.
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Pick one list. See at the very end if you wish to officially 'adopt' one 
queue.

The number in parenthesis designs the number of issues 2 weeks old or more 
(i.e. issues most likely forgotten and not being dealt with).

(Queue #1) DRUPAL-4-6 critical issues:
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&versions=11555,11262,10237,9739,9703,7696,7636,7578,5660,7407&priorities=1&states=1,8,13,14,2
18/06/2006 : 24 (19) issues.
25/06/2006 : 8 (5) issues.
02/07/2006 : 5 (4) issues. 
07/08/2006 : 5 (5) issues only.
Those are really critical issues, already fixed in head and 4.7. 
Can 3 or 4 developers agree to cooperate on one of those, so that there is one 
less issue next week?

(Queue #2) DRUPAL-4-7 critical issues:
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&versions=11551,11252,10634,10412,10302,10273,10238,10195,9902,9842,9753,9728,10696&priorities=1&states=1,8,13,14,2
18/06/2006 : 31 (19) issues.
25/06/2006 : 12 (8) issues.
02/07/2006 : 7 (5) issues. 
07/08/2006 : 19 (13) issues only!
Hmmm.... What happened? 4.7 is supposed to be stable!

(Queue #3) CVS critical bugs: 
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&versions=6487&categories=bug&priorities=1&states=1,8,13,14,2
18/06/2006 : 6 (1) issues.
25/06/2006 : 13 (1) issues.
02/07/2006 : 15 (1) issues. 
07/08/2006 : 16 (3) issues only!
A few are marked as fixed already...

(Queue #4) DRUPAL-4-6 Patch Needs Review bugs:
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&versions=11555,11262,10237,9739,9703,7696,7636,7578,5660,7407&categories=bug&states=8
18/06/2006 : 26 (25) issues.
25/06/2006 : 26 (25) issues.
02/07/2006 : 25 (24) issues. 
07/08/2006 : 24 (23) issues.
Most need to be bumped to cvs, if the bug still exists. 
If the bug hasn't been fixed yet, try to reroll the patch for head, or else 
set as "patch needs work".

(Queue #5) DRUPAL-4-7 Patch Needs Review bugs:
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&versions=11551,11252,10634,10412,10302,10273,10238,10195,9902,9842,9753,9728,10696&categories=bug&states=8
18/06/2006 : 17 (5) issues.
25/06/2006 : 16 (7) issues.
02/07/2006 : 21 (8) issues. 
07/08/2006 : 15 (11) issues only.
Make sure to note if the bug has been fixed in HEAD already: it would be silly 
to have a fix in 4.7, to see the bug reappear when 4.8/5.0 comes out.

(Queue #6) CVS Patch Needs Review bugs:
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&versions=6487&categories=bug&states=8
18/06/2006 : 72 (67) issues.
25/06/2006 : 71 (67) issues.
02/07/2006 : 77 (66) issues. 
07/08/2006 : 72 (59) issues.
As you see, only 13 issues are still active (less then 2 weeks old). Most are 
very old, so we have the choice between re-rolling the patch for current 
head, set as code needs work, or set as already fixed if appropriate.

(Queue #7)  DRUPAL-4-5 old bugs:
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&versions=10236,9738,9702,7695,7635,7577,6481,6486,4564,6478&categories=bug,task,support&states=1,8,13,14,2       
25/06/2006 : 5 (4) issues.
02/07/2006 : 3 (2) issues. 
07/08/2006 : 2 (2) issues only.
Bump to head is the issue is still valid or close if they have been fixed.
We need to do for this old branch what has just been done for the 4.7 Beta 
releases: review each one individually, and close or bump to head as 
appropriate until no issue is left in this branch.

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3} Why this report and how to cooperate?
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There are now over 2200 issues in the queue.
The figure sounds daunting: how can a very few volunteer developers deal with 
such a huge amount of bugs?

The point is that we don't need to worry of the whole issue queue, but by 
getting somewhat more organized, the most important of those issues can be 
definitively dealt with. 

To start with, there shouldn't be anything critical within the Drupal project 
issues. Critical bugs must be dealt as a matter of priority. But one can get 
easily discouraged when facing 4 four pages of critical issues. 
The first step is therefore to sort out what is really critical from what is 
not.
Having a shortlist of what is really critical, two or three developers can 
focus on a single issue, helping each other, so that one week later there is 
one really critical issue less. Similarly, 10-12 developers could get rid of 
3-4 critical issues and in a few weeks, the list of critical issues would be 
down to almost nothing (only 1-2 issues caused by a large patch recently 
introduced in head, for example).

If you wish to participate in tackling one of the 7 short issue queues 
featured here, please reply to the list, quoting only the issue you wish to 
'adopt', changing also the subject title of your email to reflect the queue 
you have chosen. 
Hopefully, two or three more developers will reply to you, saying they want to 
help you with the issues in that same queue.

Thank you to all the volunteers for your cooperation.

Blessings,

Augustin.

-- 
http://www.wechange.org/
Because we and the world need to change.

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Intimate Relationships, peace and harmony in the couple.