Re: [Chicken-users] bugtracking and open source labor

[Arto Bendiken]

On 12/11/06, Brandon J. Van Every <address@hidden> wrote:
> felix winkelmann wrote:
> >
> > Anyway, I'm slowly approaching the point where I can't handle
> > all feature requests and bug reports and I feel we need a bugtracking
> > system...
> >
> > HINT! HINT!
>
> These are the conundrums of open source growth.  I don't know what the
> answer is here; I haven't passed through this project stage before.  A
> lot of open source projects have $$$$$ attached to them somehow.  Like a
> university researcher for instance.  Lacking $$$$$, there's a
> corresponding lack of resources for taking on certain things.  Unless
> people volunteer.

As it happens, I had recently been thinking the same thing (about a
bug tracking system for Chicken) as I had trouble compiling a number
of eggs on Chicken 2.5, and didn't really feel like writing to the
list about each and every problem.

Breakage of eggs (even the important ones - for instance, syntax-case
didn't compile for me on 2.5) has been common enough in my experience
with Chicken that I've adopted (and I'm ashamed to admit it) a
"just-wait-and-it-will-be-fixed" attitude to the fact.

If, however, there was a bug tracking system being used, I would most
certainly raise tickets for the issues (if they hadn't yet been
reported) and thus contribute to getting the problem solved.

As far bug trackers go, I don't know how many people on this list are
familiar with Trac (http://trac.edgewall.org/)? It's a minimalistic,
KISS-style issue tracking and project management system for software
development, with superb Subversion integration (and Darcs support,
too, though I haven't used that myself).

Trac has in the past couple of years become very popular for managing
open-source projects. For example, the WordPress, TextPattern,
Lighttpd, Ruby on Rails, Django, VLC, AdiumX and WebKit projects use
it - heck, it's even used at NASA's JPL for managing deep-space
missions. (Hope there were a few names in there that everyone can
recognize ;-))

An example of a Trac installation oriented towards compiler system
development can be readily found with the GHC compiler for Haskell:

http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/ghc

I'm fortunate enough to get to use Trac on most of my work-related
projects, too, and I think it's a kick-ass system from a developer's
point of view (our project management sometimes disagrees and would
like a bit more red tape ;-))

Now, to put my money where my mouth is, I hereby volunteer to setup,
host and maintain a Trac system for Chicken - provided there's
interest, of course

I have plenty of server resources to spare, and a personal interest in
all this. Trac could run on a sub-domain such as
trac.call-with-current-continuation.org, and I could give SSH access
to the system for the people who need it (Felix, Alejandro, et al). I
would naturally work with Alejandro to get the SVN (or Darcs)
repository integrated and ensure everyone could use their existing SVN
accounts to login to the Trac system without having to re-register.

Opinions?

Arto

--
Arto Bendiken | address@hidden | http://bendiken.net/