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From: "Stewart, Wayne" <wayne DOT stewart AT sonosite DOT com>
To: "'cygwin AT sourceware DOT cygnus DOT com'" <cygwin AT sourceware DOT cygnus DOT com>
Subject: Bug reporting & this mailing list
Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 11:58:21 -0700
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Hi,

Since the 'cygwin' mailing list seems to
be the official avenue to report bugs, I
was wondering if there is any way for
mailing list subscribers (or cygwin users
in general) to know which threads of
discussion end up as actual recognized,
verified bugs (that may get fixed some
day).  Is there a separate bug list
maintained by the cygwin maintainers?
If so, is it viewable by the general
user community?  What about bugs/issues that
get discovered independently of the
mailing list (e.g., by Cygnus internally)?

It sometimes appears to me that threads
just fizzle out due to lack of interest
without anyone ever acknowledging that a
new reproducible bug has been discovered
that will be tracked and maybe fixed at
some point in the future.

I know that in the FreeWare/OpenSource
model we are all welcome to contribute
fixes - but this is not always that
easy to do without knowing what the
verified bugs are.

A case in point is the cygwin version
of expect.  There are lots of differences
between it and the Unix (e.g. Linux)
version.  Even if I wanted to start
attacking some of the problems I've
found, it would be very difficult, since
there is no 'README.cygwin' or any such
documentation on the cygwin modifications
and the rationale behind them.  It is
no suprise therefore that all recent
entries in the ChangeLog are from people
with 'cygnus.com' email addresses.

Likewise it would be very difficult to
extract a list of known issues and
knowledgeable suggestions for fixing
them by just searching the mailing list
archives.  There's just too much noise
to filter and it is also difficult to
constuct thorough search queries to
locate all appropriate discussions.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the
FreeWare/OpenSource model, but it seems
to me it's one thing to solicit contributions
from the Net and another to actually
facilitate them.

Thanks,
    Wayne
 

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