[development] {Short issue queues need care - 3} Fewer critical issues, but more patches to review.

[Augustin (a.k.a. Beginner)]

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

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

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

The result this week is mixed. 

On one side, the number of critical issues keeps dropping (but those that 
remain will need proper attention). 
There were 45 (25) critical issues last week, and 37 (20) remain this week: a 
few got fixed during the last 14 days.
We still need to work as a team to get the remaining critical issues solved, 
one at a time.


On the other side, the overall number of issues climbed significantly, and 
especially the number of patches needing reviews.
Patches needing reviews climbed from 246 (207) issues last week to 257 (211) 
this week.
What is worrysome, is that many (most?) of those patches never received a 
single review. Some developper took the trouble to create a patch, but a 
review is missing either to tell him or her why the patch cannot be committed 
as is (and should be flagged as 'patch needs work'); or to push the patch 
forward to be committed.

Maybe this is symptomatic of a community of developers that does not work as a 
team in its lower echelons. 
There is no much use in producing so many patches if most rot in the queue 
without the needed review.
That's why every developer who produces a patch to be reviewed ('scratching 
their own itch') should also work as a part of the community and spend some 
time reviewing patches from other developers.

Still, the tendency with critical issues is positive, and it is hoped that 
when critical issues are down to a very few, developers will turn their 
attention towards the 'patch needs review' queue.

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.


*******************************************
2} Featured short issue queues.
*******************************************

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) Ready To Be Committed issues:
This one is especially for Dries, Steven, Neil and Gerhard.
http://drupal.org/project/issues?projects=3060&states=14
25/06/2006 : 7 (2) issues.
02/07/2006 : 6 (2) issues only.
Dries and Steven: please note the DRUPAL-4-6 issues.


(Queue #2) 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 only.
Those are really critical issues, already fixed in head and 4.7. 2-3 
developers need to cooperate to deal with them, 1 issue at a time.


(Queue #3) 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 only!


(Queue #4) 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 only!
A few are marked as fixed already...


(Queue #5) 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.
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 #6) 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 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 comes out.


(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 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.



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

There are now over 2000 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.


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