Re: Reporting bugs... (Was-- Re: Xcode bug)
Re: Reporting bugs... (Was-- Re: Xcode bug)
- Subject: Re: Reporting bugs... (Was-- Re: Xcode bug)
- From: Henry McGilton <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2003 17:01:05 -0800
First of all, I wish to thank everybody who responded to my post on
this issue.
Perhaps I have been looking at things from a bad angle.
On Tuesday, October 28, 2003, at 02:48 PM, j o a r wrote:
On 2003-10-28, at 21.56, Henry McGilton wrote:
Rest assured that Apple does not ignore bug reports.
I am sure that Apple do not ignore bug reports. However, the
minimal level of feedback gives one the perception that the bugs
are just being filed away.
Don't give up, because this is not true most of the time. Keep filing
bugs, and try to make the bug reports as good as possible. Think to
yourself, "what would I like to see in a bug report from one of my
users". Include screenshots, backtraces, sample code, steps to
reproduce, et.c.
I usually do. In all cases, I provided 'mini examples' that homed in
on the precise
thing that would trigger the bug. In the case of Safari, for instance,
I winnowed a
large web page full of forms down to a two-text-field example, with one
text field doing
the right thing, and the other one doing the wrong thing because of a
CSS parameter.
In the case of the window server problem, I provided them a small
application, including
source code, that pinpoints the problem.
And to be fair to the engineering team, they are quick to say thanks
for supplying
detailed test cases.
I have submitted three bugs this year. Two of them were bugs in
Safari.
One problem is in the window server itself.
I don't think that a 30 % rate of fixed bugs for the bugs you report
is bad - in fact I think it's pretty good. Perhaps if you submitted
more bugs you would be in a better position to judge how bugs are
handled - statistically that is. I don't know how many bugs I submit
per year, 150 - 200 probably, and I'm generally very happy about how
they are handled.
Okay, based on the responses from yourself and others, I am willing to
believe that
things are in fact better than my perceptions were telling me.
Apple need to raise their consciousness to the fact that bugs in Mac
OS X can manifest themselves as bugs in developer products,
You seriously don't think that they know that?
I don't know, to be honest. If they do, it's unspoken . . .
and when they do, it's the developer who gets the E-Mail from
customers. Maybe if I relayed my customer's bug reports straight to
Apple support, there might be a better appreciation of the problem.
Do you publish your full bug / feature database on the Internet? I
looked at your site, but couldn't find it.
I don't have any bugs . . . Or at least, none that I know of . . .
Just kidding . . .
I couldn't even find a support section as a matter of fact.
Each of my products has an E-Mail button in the About Panel that
provides a
direct E-Mail to a mailbox specifically associated with that product.
But now you mention it, having a support section on the web site might
be a good idea, also.
I don't see why Apple shold do this. Sure it would be fun to read, but
what would be their competitive advantage? Do you know of any big
commercial company that does that?
In the paragraph to which this is a response, I did not suggest that
Apple should make their
bug database public. I merely said that I thought that having it
private causes some degree
of problems. I can see all kinds of other, larger, problems that
could arise --- up to and including
litigation --- were Apple or any other large company to publish their
bug database, and that is why I do
not actually advocate their doing so. I am perfectly aware that it is
a difficult situation for all concerned.
Anyway, thanks for all the good feedback --- my optimism is somewhat
restored. Now, I have to go fix some bugs . . .
Best Wishes,
........ Henry
===============================+============================
Henry McGilton, Boulevardier | Trilithon Software
Objective-C/Java Composer | Seroia Research
-------------------------------+----------------------------
mailto:email@hidden |
http://www.trilithon.com
|
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