Re: [gnu.misc.discuss,gnu.emacs.gnus] Free software: Packagers vs Developers
Per Abrahamsen <abraham@dina.kvl.dk> writes:
P> I have no idea what to do with a bug report or patch comming from
P> a middleman, who neither have the same direct experience of the
P> problem as the user, nor the same knowledge of the code as the
P> developer.
Stephane Bortzmeyer <bortzmeyer@pasteur.fr> responds:
>> You mean that [a package maintainer] cannot make better reports
>> than any ordinary user?
P> For their own problems, maybe. For the users problems, the users
P> are the experts.
Hmm. Speaking as a user, when my bug reports are forwarded upstream,
sometimes I am cc'ed on the email correspondence between the Debian
maintainer and the upstream maintainer/original author with my bug
reports included more or less in their entirety. That way, the folks
upstream know who sent the original bug report.
Perhaps we can settle this argument by recommending that Debian
package maintainers note the identity of the user(s) who reported a
problem when forwarding a bug upstream? Of course, this information
is also present in the bug track server, but we can't expect
non-Debian developers to be familiar with the BTS. (And, of course,
the BTS is not always up-to-date and is not as searchable as it could
be.)
-ccwf
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