[development] {Short issue queues need care - 6} 4-5 and 4-6 branches blitz.

Tue Aug 22 15:44:06 UTC 2006

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

This week:
1} Report on progress since last time.
   a) Thanks to all participants.
   b) 4-5 and 4-6 branches blitz.
   c) Senior developers wanted for remaining 4.6 critical bugs. 
2} Featured short issue queues.
3} Why this report and how to cooperate?

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1} Report on progress since last week.
*******************************************

   a) Thank you to all participants.

Since the last report, a few people wrote to me privately, others on the dev 
list. Thus, I have evidence that at least a handfull of developers read the 
report and take action accordingly. This is a strong motivation for me to 
carry on writing them :D .
Many thanks to all who participate. 
I hope the love will carry on spreading :)
Like last week, you can write to me privately (if you haven't done so already, 
so that I have an idea of how many developers participate here) 
or reply publicly on the list to "adopt" a queue (see part 3}).

   b) 4-5 and 4-6 branches blitz.

Last week, I commented on the relative quietness of the 4-6 branch compared to 
the other branches. This week, while cvs and 4-7 carry on their journey, the 
star of this week is the 4-6 branch!
Fernando Silva reviewed almost single-handedly well over 300 issues!   
Within a week, the total number of 4-6 issues has dropped from 365 to 136 
issues (a drop of 229 issues!) and the number of old issues dropped from 353 
to a mere 18 issues!

Similarly, last week's 10 remaining 4-5 issues have all been reviewed (also by 
Fernando?) and either closed or bumped to cvs. The 4-5 issue queue is now 
empty and therefore no longer part of this report.

Well done! :)

   c) Senior developers wanted for remaining 4.6 critical bugs. 

There are only 4 critical issues left in the 4-6 branch. Myself and a few 
others have tried to help out, but it seems the issues in question are too 
arcane for less experienced developers like myself. 

May I ask that a few senior, experienced developers review each of those 4 
issues, and decide whether 
they are actually critical enough that 4-6 should be patched as a matter of 
priority 
OR those issues concern only a minority of people and an be set as "Won't fix" 
or downgraded to the level "normal".

If you deem that one or more of those issues are indeed critical enough that 
they should be patched soon, can you either provide a patch or at least give 
some precise direction on the proper way to patch the issue.

Some kind of decision must be made about those critical issues and I don't 
feel competent enough to make it or even to come up with the right patch (I 
and others tried!).

Thanks.

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2} Featured short issue queues.
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There are 930 subscribers to this mailing list.
Is it possible that 20-50 of those read this report and decide to work 
together to lower the number of issues on each of the 7 queues featured this 
week?

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=12052,11555,11262,10237,9739,9703,7696,7636,7578,5660,7407&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.
14/08/2006 : 5 (4) issues.
22/08/2006 : 4 (2) issues only.
Those are really critical issues, already fixed in head and 4.7. 
A senior developer is needed to decide the fate of those 4 issues (see note 
above).

(Queue #2) DRUPAL-4-7 critical issues:
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&versions=12050,11551,11252,10634,10412,10302,10273,10238,10195,9902,9842,9753,9728,10696&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.
14/08/2006 : 7 (0) issues.
22/08/2006 : 7 (0) issues only!
They are not the same 7 issues as last week!

(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.
14/08/2006 : 22 (5) issues.
22/08/2006 : 21 (6) issues only!
A few are marked as fixed already... but a few are getting old...

(Queue #4) DRUPAL-4-6 Patch Needs Review bugs:
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&versions=12052,11555,11262,10237,9739,9703,7696,7636,7578,5660,7407&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.
14/08/2006 : 24 (23) issues.
22/08/2006 : 20 (2) issues.
Most need to be bumped to cvs, if the bug still exists in HEAD. 
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=12050,11551,11252,10634,10412,10302,10273,10238,10195,9902,9842,9753,9728,10696&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.
14/08/2006 : 15 (4) issues.
22/08/2006 : 12 (5) 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.
14/08/2006 : 88 (59) issues.
22/08/2006 : 81 (57) issues.
As you see, many issues are old (over 2 weeks old: 59 issues), 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) Your own list of Patch Needs Review bugs:
http://drupal.org/project/issues/search/drupal
1) Follow the search link above, 
2) Select category "bug reports",
3) Select status "patch (code needs review)",
4) Enter your own user name in box "participant"
5) click "Search",
6) On the result page, click at the bottom of the page on the "#" link 
(Permalink to search query). 
You should have a link like this one: 
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&categories=bug&states=8&participated=your_drupal_user_name
7) bookmark the page. 

Those are issues you have already participated in, and you should already know 
the context. Help the person preparing the patch to eventually come up with a 
patch that can be RTBC. 
Obviously, if there are many results to the query, start from those issues you 
are the most familiar with...
If everyone does this, the result will be seen in the queues #4, #5 and #6 
above.

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3} Why this report and how to cooperate?
*******************************************

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.

http://www.reuniting.info/
Intimate Relationships, peace and harmony in the couple.