Why you should use Bugzilla
The importance of Bugs and Bugzilla
I wanted to try and clarify why we bang on about bugs and bugzilla all the time.
No, bugzilla ISN'T the easiest thing to use to start with and it takes a little practice, but there are some EXTREMELY good reasons why we should use it.
First and foremost is that the developers do not always read the forums, so a problem that may be a bug would not get seen/flagged by them immediately. (Yes, they do pop in to the forums as and when they can, but the first things they look at are bugs.)
However all the devs DO get an email from bugzilla every time a bug is raised.
As the most experienced people around here, they can usually tell at a glance if it is something that needs urgent attention or not (triage the bug), and if it is a problem with the core system. Better they close it and say ask in the forums than it be posted in the forums and missed..... Ultimately they are better judges of whether something is a bug or not. (Yes, there can be occasional frustrations if they decide it is not a bug, or is a wontfix, but that is another story)
Next it also provides a record of problems, and any fixes, that can easily be referred too later. If they make a fix and introduce a regression we can see exactly what went on, the thought processes, the code, verifications etc. It gives a level of quality assurance to the process. It also means that a new dev can easily read through and understand what has gone on.
Devs can also set a variety of statuses on bugs to indicate their progress. They get notified if there is a change of status. You can also do things like set one as blocking say a release of an ISO - i.e you can't build and release an ISO until bug x, y, or z is fixed.
Bugzilla is also closely tied to the buildsystem. Developers can easily flip patches into the buildsystem and it makes their already busy lives much easier. The more time we save them, the more stuff they can fix. The are used to bugzilla and can get through bugs and bug reports at a much higher rate than they can in forums.
Forums can also become a free for all if you are not careful, with lots of well meaning but not necessarily very good people offering all sorts of advice (have a look in lots of Windows help forums to see what I mean !) A bug concentrates the thought processes for all concerned.
In the bug tracker you will only usually get the experienced developers (and occasional idiots like me). They tend to cut to the chase. They are usually methodical, logical, and really know their code. They won't waste your time on chasing wild geese :-)
Ultimately bugzilla saves the devs a lot of time...... and their time is precious and we need to use it as wisely as possible.
Here is some useful further reading.
http://wiki.contribs.org/Bugzilla_Help http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html http://www.bugzilla.org/docs/4.0/en/html/using.html
If you need help then PLEASE ASK (a link to something here ? ). We are more than happy to help people learn how to use these tools as it benefits us all.
