You're one guy against the world. So far, no one on this thread has responded positively to your proposal to overhaul severities. I'd suggest you stop acting like it's an inevitability
Ok then.
Once again bugzilla is a developer's tool, not a collection of data for users. We already have the Wiki, forums and AppDB satisfying the users' needs.
Ok.
Point is that metabugs, though useless to users, are important for the REAL target audience of bugzilla: developers. Repeat after me: Bugzilla is there for the developers, not the users
.... Better not let them in then.
A user-centric focus on bug priorities simply would not work with a project as large (massive?) as Wine is.
.... Repeat after me: "Nicklas Is not proposing a user centric focus, which would be insane, he is merely talking about weighing it in." "Nicklas Is not proposing a user centric focus, which would be insane, he is merely talking about weighing it in." I have actually forgot how many times I have tried to say this.
Then they disappear. There would be no way to search for metabugs, for example, whereas at the moment you can search for Blockers. There's no point in keeping metabugs if there's no
...
I would search for priority 1 bugs. To be a priority 1 bug it would had to had been either a blocker or critial. Metabugs...well, if they are used a lot maybe that will become a problem. But aren't using metabugs a bit wrong anyway?
You're now implying that all bugs should be given equal priority.
No I am not. I rarely imply.
Some bugs *can't* be fixed without limitations lifted in other areas (e.g. introduction of Xinput2). They could still be severe (mouse-related bugs could easily attain Major severity) but be a low priority due to forces outside of Wine.
Then severity would be critical and priority 4.
Mixing is up like is done now makes it: a) more complicated for users. b) more difficult to severity in statistics.
a) is not a consideration for bugzilla. It has to be easy for the developers that respond. b) is nonsensical. We're talking about two very different forms of statistics. Bugzilla is the place for developer-side severity (which is what's in place now); forums and AppDB are the places for user-side severity (which is what you're suggesting). By definition, there is no way to gather statistics on one when the other is used.
a) You are right. Keep them users out of there. b) I thought that priority was developer priority and severity was severity for the users.
Please quote with context! And having no definitions of the severity levels is just asking for trouble. Surely you realise that every user will have a different opinion on how serious their bug is, and what the boundaries for "Low", "Medium", "High" and "Critical" are, which will likely vary greatly from what the developers responding to the bugs think? Conflict between developers and users is bad, and having real definitions of the severity levels allows the devs to say "well, your 'Critical' bug that has a simple but tedious workaround doesn't fit the definition of Critical, so it's being downgraded to 'Minor'."
If one say severity is in usage context and priority is in big-picture context there would be less conflicts.
I can't tell what you're talking about here.
Ok. The same.
- "A few years" is rapid?
Yes. I'd say so. I a large project's life, anyway.
- "Drifting away" from usability when we've always (AFAIK) had the
current severity levels (but not necessarily the definitions), and established that the system works well to assist developers categorising the bugs?
Wine hasn't been used seriously by people until now. When something goes from being only a toy to a real too it brings changes.
- "Such a small skew", as in handing over full control over what
priority should be given to the bug to the users? And before you say it's not "full control", if it's not something that will seriously influence the way bugs are prioritised, it's pointless to do such a massive overhaul of the severity ratings.
Again, I disagree. Massive? Renaming some categorisations?
- "Normal" getting fixed more than "minor" is a problem?
Yes, this can be a huge problem if minor consists of annoyances. In the end, one have a system that works, but in a very annoying way.
Applications still have to be treated on a per-app basis. Every app is different, and in extreme cases different versions of the same app use violently different API calls.
Yes, but I am talkic
Correct, games and 3D applications do tend to use DirectX, whereas office applications don't (tend to). Well done, astute observation. It doesn't mean that a joystick fix for GTA:San Andreas will work with Gunmetal, or that a WineD3D patch for COD4 will improve performance in Supreme Commander. They're all individuals! (Chorus: Yes, they're all individuals!) They're all different! (Chorus: Yes, they're all different!) (I'm not) (shhh)
I think you are just being negative, to be honest. So games aren't more like each others than they are like a word processor? Support forums are normally grouped into areas this way, why can't wine do this?
That's what searching is for.
Try searching it for "blockers" then. :-) Splitting would be a rough categorization of threads that I think would be beneficial, that's all.