Re: sendsms help

[Roberto Verzola]

Hi Pawel,

Ok, I think I understand better the situation. As I said earlier, and perhaps 
I should repeat it with more feeling: you are doing a heroic job.

As for python, if it can be helpful, I might help. I had been interested in 
making gnokii functions accessible from python, but I didn't know enough, 
even after getting several python books. I am basically a beginner (maybe, 
between beginner and intermediate by this time...) python programmer. But I'm 
also too old so what I learn I soon forget unless I use it very often.

If someone else managed to make a python module that makes available the 
various gnokii functions (beyond my skills at this time), I could start doing 
python programs for gnokii. 

I had written some short python programs that used gnokii, but mainly as it 
would be used from the command line. These programs basically just invoked 
gnokii from a shell and then saved to a file the gnokii response and parsed 
these files.

Roberto


On Tuesday 08 May 2007 1:25 am, Pawel Kot wrote:
> Hi Roberto,
>
> On 5/7/07, Roberto Verzola <address@hidden> wrote:
> > > No. We don't support any other version than the latest. It is my fault
> > > that we had not release since long time and we used this 'try the
> > > latest release' too often.
> >
> > Would like to carry this discussion further. Hope that's ok. My
> > suggestion was not about supporting old versions, but understanding bugs
> > in the software: in which part of the code they are hiding in, and what
> > kind of bug are they.
>
> While I agree in general, we're facing the problem of focusing on
> gnokii development or on gnokii bugs that noone really care. The most
> common situation is that someone reports the bug, we ask for more
> information and we get nothing.
>
> > If the response to the bug report had been: "use v.xxx because that
> > version corrects the bug", then I'd know that the gnokii developers had
> > identified the bug and actually corrected it. But if the response is "use
> > v.xxx, maybe it will work for you", then the developers would not have
> > learned anything from the bug report.
>
> Please keep in mind, that answering person may not know all the bugs
> fixed. If someone reports problem in gnokii 0.6.5 which is 3 years old
> even I don't remember all bugs fixed.
> But I agree that phrasing "maybe it will work for you" is incorrect.
> I'd say "verify that bug in the recent version and report in in the
> way it occurs there". It is usually easier for the reporter to
> reproduce the bug than for us.
>
> > > This is not always true. In most cases disappeared bugs mean someone
> > > found them and fixed them.
> >
> > "Most cases?" You'd know only if you actually checked the bug first... In
> > this case, the more appropriate response would have been something like:
> > "yes, we know this bug and v.xxx fixes them; use this version or later".
>
> That would require few things. First of all: keep the track of all
> bugs. I know we suck, that we don't do it. But it is one of the most
> time consuming things in the project maintainance. Second, it would
> require us to understand all the ways the bug could appear. Notice
> that there are bugs reported in the versions (3 years old!) that some
> of the developers didn't even hear about gnokii.
>
> That said, I think we should focus on the issues that people do care.
> Upgrading gnokii version is an easy task. If anyone doesn't want to
> spend 15 minutes doing this, we have more important things to do. If
> the problem comes back from different directions we really do take
> care of the problem.
>
> > > Please stand up and analize the reported bugs for us.
> >
> > I was initially hesitant to post my suggestion because I half-expected
> > this kind of response. And I would have wanted to help, except that I
> > program in python and not C.
>
> I didn't mean to be any kind of rude. But the reality is that my free
> time gets more limited every year. And we have less developers than we
> had 5 years ago (maybe that means that Linux does not need a mobile
> phone suite). And I think Python programmer would be valuable for us
> as well.
>
> > Let me say in closing that gnokii is a great piece of software and the
> > developers are doing a heroic job. Please take my suggestion in the
> > spirit of a constructive proposal to improve the quality of the software
> > further.
>
> I do. But again, here is what choice do I have. Analize by myself
> every bug reported to whichever version, even given no information, on
> the platform/architecture I don't have with dinosaur era phone or do
> some fun stuff: sniff and guess communication on new functionality,
> support modern s60 3rd rev phones. If someone is willing to help us in
> gnokii development he/she is very welcome. Even helping us with bug
> management, keeping docs up to date, maintainig web site and wiki or
> doing simple programming tasks is very very welcome!
>
> take care,
> pkot