Re: Bug reports and documentation updates
Re: Bug reports and documentation updates
- Subject: Re: Bug reports and documentation updates
- From: Creed Erickson <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 08:51:13 -0700
On Wednesday, July 23, 2003, at 07:24 AM, Phill Kelley wrote:
There *is* an alternative. Simply make the Radar database searchable.
As a former Apple employee, I have some perspective on this and it is a
non-viable option.
I have enormous sympathy for those frustrated by the black-hole nature
of the bug reporter. Now that I'm "outside" I suffer similarly. But I
also understand the Apple viewpoint. Here's a few points to consider:
A) Engineers are not spokespersons for Apple, at least not without
prior authorization. Commenting on product plans, projected release
dates, feature sets, defects, or directions in a public forum has been
and can be interpreted to be acting as a spokesperson. This could be
extended to comments such as, "There will be a fix for the xxx bug in
the update coming out next month." At an extreme, saying anything in a
public forum which precipitates anything "bad" -- negative PR, legal
action, disclosure beyond that which has been announced, etc. -- can
lead to a round of that old-time favorite game, "You bet your job."
B) Making bugs publicly searchable transforms the bug system into a
public forum. See point A, above.
As for the timeliness of fixes hitting the street: There is a support
nightmare lurking in the combinatorial explosion of software
configurations should Apple release updates or patches for all
non-critical[1] fixes. It could be contended that the average Mac user
would be confused by "excessive" updates, making support of that user
extremely difficult. I can understand this better when put in the
context of some of my relatives.
Just some thoughts.
[1] "Critical" in Apple lingo appears to mean compromise via network
connection, the machine rendered useless, or non-trivial loss of data.
I can think of other apparent criteria, but discussing those thoughts
would be non-politic on my part.
---
Creed Erickson <email@hidden>
"Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is
serious."
- Brendan Gill
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