MIME-Version: 1.0
Date: Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:42:36 -0700
Message-ID: <e28dda531001181042s27410e30r2349b75726bf57e4@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: I suggest changing cygwin bug reporting to use bugzilla, or a similar  	tool
From: Clinton Goudie-Nice <clint AT magicalspirits DOT net>
To: cygwin <cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
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Greetings,

I recently had to report my first bug to Cygwin, and I would like to
suggest you change to use bugzilla for bug reporting.

Here was my experience for bug reporting.

---

I started at cygwin.com, and clicked reporting problems. I then read
the 3 pages of text.

I searched the FAQ for anything related. In this case, I did find some
information, but it didn't help.
I searched the mailing list for anything related (just in case my
earlier searches on google had missed something). In this case I also
found related information, but nothing specific and no information as
to how to fix it. On this I probably spent an hour or so.

I read the two pages of text to make sure I'm about to subscribe to
the appropriate mailing list. I chose digest because I didn't want the
full flow of the list.
This sent me out a two page email that I read and confirmed.
I received a two page welcome email that I read looking for what email
address to submit issues to.

Next, I had to make a guess as to where to send an email to send it to
the list because none of the welcome emails stated where to send it.

My initial send to the digest list responded with an I dont accept
html email. (the gmail default) I understand they why, but it was
another hurdle.
My second attempt responded with I dont accept emails.

I then made another guess that it would be the same address without
digest. If I was not subscribed to other mailing lists that operate
like this, this might have represented a large hurdle.

That email went through, and I did receive great support, and even a
fix for my issue with the setup.exe application. I did have to skim 2
digest emails for the responses for my issue, but the end result
worked out great.

---

I'm a fairly casual cygwin user. I use it for SSH, some grepping, and
an occasional VI. I've been using it for probably 6 years, and I've
never had a bug before I felt the need to report, but I couldn't get
past this issue.

The problem here is that you've set the bar to reporting issues very
high. It takes a lot of reading, a lot of investigation, and multiple
steps in a signup process, which finally ended in some guesswork, for
which I'm probably only going to be reporting this one issue.

I humbly suggest that Cygwin change over to an online bug reporting
software tool, such as bugzilla, to handle issue reports.

If this had been in a bugzilla tracking system, I would have first
searched it, finding no answer, I would have then signed up for an
account, at which time I would still have had to read the rules, but I
believe my cost in time to enter a bug into such a system would have
been far less, my time to research and see if it had already been
reported would have been decreased, and the result would be tailored
to the information I needed to submit and the result I needed to
receive.

Anyway, that's just my 2c

Thanks for a great product & for a quick fix to my issue.

Clint Goudie-Nice

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