GSoC plugins and the Issue tracker

I'm going to be adding feature requests/bug reports to our
issue
tracker with respect to the GSoC plugins. This mail is
really for our
GSoC people, but may well be relevant to others new to open
source
development.

We use the issue tracker to help us track bugs and feature
requests.
It is also used to help prioritise work and to indicate that
someone
is working on a specific issue.

Adding something to the issue tracker is not an instruction
for
someone to do the work described, it is merely a record that
some work
needs to be done.

It is up to the Forrest community as a whole to ensure that
issues
important to them get addressed. So, our GSoCers should not
read the
notification from the issue tracker as an instruction to do 
a
specific task. You should tackle the issues you feel are
most
important.

That being said, the priority assigned to an issue is a good
indicator
of what we (your users) feel is an important issue. You
should
certainly consider anything marked as major or above as
being worth
tackling if your schedule allows.

We do not use the issue tracker to discuss the issue, that
is what the
mailing list is for. We may link back to the list archives
from the
issue tracker in order to ensure knowledge about an issue
does not get
lost.

If you intend to an a feature, or you find a bug that you
are not
going to deal with immediately you should add it to the
issue tracker.
This ensures others are aware of the direction you intend to
take and
prevents others having to report bugs you are already aware
of.

OK, I'm off to the issue tracker now.

Ross

Ross Gardler wrote:
> I'm going to be adding feature requests/bug reports to
our issue
> tracker with respect to the GSoC plugins. This mail is
really for our
> GSoC people, but may well be relevant to others new to
open source
> development.
> 
> We use the issue tracker to help us track bugs and
feature requests.
> It is also used to help prioritise work and to indicate
that someone
> is working on a specific issue.

Thanks for getting us all to use the issue tracker more.

> Adding something to the issue tracker is not an
instruction for
> someone to do the work described, it is merely a record
that some work
> needs to be done.
> 
> It is up to the Forrest community as a whole to ensure
that issues
> important to them get addressed. So, our GSoCers should
not read the
> notification from the issue tracker as an instruction
to do  a
> specific task. You should tackle the issues you feel
are most
> important.
> 
> That being said, the priority assigned to an issue is a
good indicator
> of what we (your users) feel is an important issue. You
should
> certainly consider anything marked as major or above as
being worth
> tackling if your schedule allows.
> 
> We do not use the issue tracker to discuss the issue,
that is what the
> mailing list is for. We may link back to the list
archives from the
> issue tracker in order to ensure knowledge about an
issue does not get
> lost.

Also just mentioning the "FOR-*" number and title
in email helps with searching.

By the way, remember to use the "ForrestBar":
http:
//forrest.apache.org/tools/forrestbar.html

Among other things, ForrestBar provides direct search
of our Jira Issues, where you can later refine the search.
Also email search, so will find mail that mentions
the issue number.

> If you intend to an a feature, or you find a bug that
you are not
> going to deal with immediately you should add it to the
issue tracker.
> This ensures others are aware of the direction you
intend to take and
> prevents others having to report bugs you are already
aware of.
> 
> OK, I'm off to the issue tracker now.

Please see the overview:
http://forrest.
apache.org/issues.html
especially the Guidelines section.

-David