>> Martin, >> >> I'm sure you're watching this thread..... >> >> Can we take it as some "feedback from other developers" that you requested >> way back in https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/bioc- >devel/2011-October/002854.html when I wished for similar.... >> > >I don't really have anything constructive to add to the thread.
Actually your history lesson is valuable to the discussion. Thanks! Honestly, I really don't have a great problem with things as they stand. I get plenty of attention to _my_ questions/observations in a timely and informative manner.... I do think that the BioC project hosting a tracking system might eliminate a hurdle for some developers, but the trade-off is hard for me to assess. Cheers, Malcolm > > From a project perspective it would be great to have a centralized bug > tracking >facility; there are many bugs, they are poorly tracked even by the most >diligent >of us, and it would benefit users and developers alike to have a convenient >way >to view our laundry. > >Most off-the-shelf bug tracking systems are not designed to work under the >'federated' (I guess that's not the right technical description) model of >Bioconductor where there are a large number of individual projects, so >implementing a workable solution requires quite a lot of effort and / or >ongoing >management. As we've seen with the rise of github and its use by even key >contributors to the project, it is very difficult to impose a central system >on >our developers, even for such a key aspect as code management. Users are >similarly very difficult beasts to train, so their structured participation >would be inconsistent. While on the one hand bug tracking might seem like a >no-brainer for an experienced developer, it adds another hurdle (along with >mastering version control, the R package system, vignettes, ...) to >potentially >discourage more novice developers who nonetheless are making valuable >contributions to the project. > >In response to the earlier thread, the developers in Seattle did use an >Atlassian / Jira based internal bug tracking system and pursued it for about a >year, with the goal being to make it available generally if it seemed like it >would 'fly'. There was varied enthusiasm and participation within the group. >Perhaps I was less diligent than others; I found that my bugs were either >addressed before they got into the tracker, or entered the tracker as a place >to >die. The bugs would die because they weren't of high enough importance or >clearly enough articulated to act on when they arose, and with the passage of >time their perceived importance and relevance declined. There were some >individual successes, where tracking a bug helped to coordinate input from >different people and to collate insights and proposed solutions into a focused >discussion, and where the bug tracker served as a kind of long-term memory >bank >for issues that did eventually get addressed. Use of the tracker declined with >time, presenting an increasingly inaccurate representation of activity in the >project. > >Martin > > >> In any case, >> >> +1, >> >> Malcolm >> >> >-----Original Message----- >> >From: bioc-devel-boun...@r-project.org >> [mailto:bioc-devel-boun...@r-project.org] On Behalf Of Keith Hughitt >> >Sent: Friday, May 23, 2014 12:53 PM >> >To: Nicolas Delhomme >> >Cc: bioc-devel@r-project.org >> >Subject: Re: [Bioc-devel] Bug tracker for Bioconductor? >> > >> >Hi Nico, >> > >> >It's a shame that the effort did not gain more traction in 2004. I wonder >> >if things would look differently now as the community has grown >> >significantly larger? >> > >> >It does seem like there are a relatively small number of bug-related >> >questions on the mailing lists. I wonder though if this could be in part >> >because some people may be hesitant to ask their questions on such a >> large >> >list, and instead end up either forgoing the question or contacting the >> >software authors directly? >> > >> >Also, even if there is only a trickle of bug and feature-request related >> >posts to the mailing list across time, without any way to keep track of >> how >> >many of those issues are open/unresolved, it's hard to gauge whether the >> >project really is low-maintenance, or if there are actually a large >> number >> >of issues that have just been unanswered or forgotten. >> > >> >There would definitely be a burden associated with setting up a more >> >sophisticated system for dealing with bugs. I am just not convinced that >> >the burden would be too great, or that it is not worth taking on :) >> > >> >Cheers, >> >Keith >> > >> > >> >On Tue, May 20, 2014 at 10:33 AM, Nicolas Delhomme >> ><nicolas.delho...@umu.se>wrote: >> > >> >> Hej Keith! >> >> >> >> I agree that this would be useful. For having been very close to the >> 2004 >> >> attempt - a then colleague of mine set up a solution similar to what >> you >> >> describe - I can tell you that the main reason for it dying out was >> that >> >> despite advertising it, it never got widely used. I don’t know what the >> >> reasons for that really were, but from experience I know that many >> fellow >> >> bioinformaticians find such tools more time-consuming than handling >> bug >> >> tracking through emails. And after all very few packages require >> frequent >> >> support, as can be devised from questions to the mailing list, so I do >> >> understand their point. >> >> >> >> Cheers, >> >> >> >> Nico >> >> >> >> --------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> Nicolas Delhomme >> >> >> >> The Street Lab >> >> Department of Plant Physiology >> >> Umeå Plant Science Center >> >> >> >> Tel: +46 90 786 5478 >> >> Email: nicolas.delho...@plantphys.umu.se >> >> SLU - Umeå universitet >> >> Umeå S-901 87 Sweden >> >> --------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> >> >> On 20 May 2014, at 15:04, Keith Hughitt <keith.hugh...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> >> >> >> > Hello all, >> >> > >> >> > I was wondering if there had been any progress towards adopting a bug >> >> > tracking system for Bioconductor? >> >> > >> >> > It has been discussed at least a couple times in the past, e.g.: >> >> > >> >> > - >> https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/bioc-devel/2011-October/002844.html >> >> > - >> https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/bioc-devel/2004-October/000040.html >> >> > >> >> > But as far as I can tell, no such system has been set up and the >> current >> >> > approach is to report issues to the mailing list. >> >> > >> >> > The main reasons I see for adopting such a system would be: >> >> > >> >> > 1. Centralized location for reporting and tracking bugs and feature >> >> > requests; this also makes it more straight-forward to see if anyone >> else >> >> > has already reported a specific issue. >> >> > >> >> > 2. Ability to associate a given issue with specific a project >> >> > >> >> > 3. Ability to assign priorities to various issues and assign >> developers >> >> to >> >> > work on them. >> >> > >> >> > 4. Easy to track changes made to a given release. >> >> > >> >> > 5. Separate usage and development discussion (mailing list) for >> >> > issue-related discussion. >> >> > >> >> > Something like trac <http://trac.edgewall.org/> would be sufficient >> to >> >> > cover all of the above issues, although something with closer >> integration >> >> > to the codebase such as Github <https://github.com/> or >> >> > Bitbucket<https://bitbucket.org/>might provide some additional >> >> > benefits. Of course, migrating to a separate >> >> > VCS not a trivial matter and would itself merit a separate >> discussion. >> >> > >> >> > A couple examples of issue trackers working well for R projects: >> >> > >> >> > https://github.com/hadley/ggplot2/issues >> >> > https://github.com/yihui/knitr >> >> > >> >> > Thank you all for your excellent work on Bioconductor! It is a really >> >> > amazing resource. >> >> > >> >> > Regards, >> >> > Keith >> >> > >> >> > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] >> >> > >> >> > _______________________________________________ >> >> > Bioc-devel@r-project.org mailing list >> >> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/bioc-devel >> >> >> >> >> > >> > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] >> > > >-- >Computational Biology / Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center >1100 Fairview Ave. N. >PO Box 19024 Seattle, WA 98109 > >Location: Arnold Building M1 B861 >Phone: (206) 667-2793 _______________________________________________ Bioc-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/bioc-devel
