What if you had a bug tracking system (like Request Tracker) that keeps a log of a bug-ticket, as well as a set of meta-data concerning the report. I'm thinking of a client/server architecture, where the BTS answers HTTP and/or SOAP or REST requests (perhaps via Apache/mod_perl)... Or maybe it uses CORBA, or maybe d-bus... and certainly it should support both an IMAP and ical port. Maybe it should have a Wiki or interact with one...
It will then be interfaced with Anjuta, Planner, GnuCash, and Evolution in some useful way by some magical means. With the BTS integrated into the IDE, utilizing it will become a more natural part of the daily workflow of a well trained software developer. If, in Planner, or Evolution Calendar, or..., clicking a task-view associated with some object brings you to a display / control for that object... One possible such object is the one for the bug tracking system user interface... I'd like to read and manage bug report communications in Evolution, via an IMAP connection to the BTS server. I want to annotate bug reports and communicate with the reporter. The bug-ticket display will be a specialized view containing form elements, after the fashion of Request Tracker's HTML view or the already-in-evolution vCard views... SchoolTool is looking pretty good; it has a beautiful interface. LaunchPad is interesting... (This might be the droid we're looking for.) I want the same system to be useful for my business communications as well, with only subtle differences between a business ticket and a Bug-ticket. For this reason (and others) it should link in some useful, magical and yes, perhaps, even extensible way to GnuCash (QOF) and specific accounts and transaction types or instances... In fact, we should really think in terms of the applications being components of an ERP system. (tiny-erp is nifty looking.) I envision it automatically creating and managing dynamic calendar marks and to-do items for keeping a time-line on bug tickets, perhaps according to some configurable set of rules per bug-ticket queue. With a "source code map" visually related to the Gantt chart (and calendar) time-line, and pop-up annotations that can link a specific version of a source file to an annotation and vise versa... A bug or sales ticket will create a task and/or annotation on a planner sheet, which will show up in the Gantt chart. It should contain associations with the ticket owner and other BTS persona. Whether the bug should create a task in the planner and with what parameters will be defaulted to some configured value, or set via the BTS user interface. The Planner user interface will be used to manipulate the relevant aspects of the bug. Yous can only do one thing at a time each... This will be used to plan time commitments and work assignments regarding handling a bug-ticket. The Gantt charts, calendars, time-lines, and email-like interface to the BTS will provide a more natural view of where yous stand with regards to work in progress and other bug-ticket status. It should be use-able in a (micro)manager-free peer-to-peer work-share environment. I want Doxygen-like code maps of software systems with call graphs, UML diagrams, hyperlinks into BTS, Planner charts, gitweb + Linux Cross Reference ... but more available by being right there in Anjuta/Dia with real GUI not "fake HTML form" GUI; part of the code browser. The messages read from the BTS via IMAP should be displayed in some well organized fashion. The BTS IMAP server will arrange them according to some folder hierarchy, and then sort them nicely. Within Evolution, they should thread. Maybe folks can think of other nice ways to arrange them, according to X-header meta-data in the bug-ticket 'email'. The BTS plug-in will add some commands with UI bindings used to manipulate meta-data concerning the bug. A design issue is whether the meta-data belongs on the IMAP stream or aside via SOAP or something? You tell me and we'll both know. Perhaps Evolution email filters should allow hierarchies of virtual folders... and even to hang vfolders under real ones, sort of grafted into the tree the server is aware of. Tickets marked various ways ought to be displayed accordingly. It should be easy to set status and other fields for a bug or sales ticket. Right after a change is made and committed, all other viewers of the folder should see it update. That may imply polling or triggered messages, so maybe Jabber...? What's the best way to communicate work-flow events assuming multiple distributed users? d-bus events will help interfaces refresh, but what about notice from a server like the envisioned BTS? Again, YTMAWBK -- I'm still in college. I want to make annotations that have a link from both specific points in Evolution, GnuCash, Anjuta, and other applications. Those little brightly colored "sign here" post-its arrow label things are not bad... but I want to make and manipulate them anywhere and each application should somehow be aware of those annotations for some useful purpose. Ever goof with Visio hyperlinking? An almost WikiLike link-and-click-ability between the views is what I'm looking for--- perhaps it should be free-form and even user-extensible, though some structure should be available embodied in the organization of the tickets, their attachments, and meta-data... Mechanism, not Policy... offer a few policies? Find patterns, groupings, and other features that emerge from the information using some sort of advanced AI or employee-written annotations and Dublin core? But not just textual annotations, perhaps, but relationships between objects in different applications... I want it to be as natural as drawing a diagram in Dia or what have you, and to link things like you can link the bars in the gantt chart of Planner. When I make a transaction in GnuCash (QOF), I want it to be able to trigger work-flow events in other components of the system. To select and draw the objects together using GUI gestures then explain what they are via a diagramming / text editor with WikiLinks would be amazingly nifty. To be able to program inter-application collaborations like that... I mean, link them visually and then describe the work-flow to it in some way, to create arbitrary constellations of intercommunicating applications. WiKid --- sort of the LabView of Gnome ERP, POS, BTS. All of the meta info about documents and annotations made on files from within Anjuta, messages, events, person records in Evolution, or transactions, lots, or accounts and what have you in GnuCash... --> enough information is available to restore relevant state-environment for sub-session after click of WikiLink to some object's view... beagle sniffing a Dublin Core? (annotation stored off-to-the-side, overlaying the real file contents, perhaps; n-way merge of annotations made by any of several developers or sales people?)... should be able to contain ClickLinks from code to BTS ticket view (in Evolution) and back again. Wow, this is insane! It will need a hyper-visor! We're consing now. What if we all pulled our WikiPedia through the same proxy, and it had annotation overlay capability plus a rating and referral system so that we can rate page views to see what students are reading about (only on specific URL sub-trees; WikiMedia etc) and to make it so you can easily direct someone to a Wiki page... Ok, so WikiMedia, or this Anjuta / Evolution / GnuCash / GnomeAnything+X can all click-link and hook up like WikiWare, then we document it, GPL it, and sell it. GMTA/YTMAWBK -- Karl Hegbloom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> _______________________________________________ gnucash-devel mailing list gnucash-devel@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
