[Reportbug-maint] Bug#498268: reportbug should improve it's existing bug checking features
Noah Slater
nslater at bytesexual.org
Mon Sep 8 14:53:33 UTC 2008
Package: reportbug
Version: 3.45
Severity: important
When reporting bugs with reportbug as it stands the user is presented with,
generally, a long list of existing bugs before being filling in any details.
I feel that this interface is:
* Hard to use and confusing for new users
* Requires too much effort to read, leading to duplicate bugs
I think that the interface for checking existing bugs could be improved by:
* Letting the user describe the bug summary
* Peforming a full text search against the BTS with the summary
* Presenting the top 10 matches of similar bugs for the same package
* Allowing the user to add additional information for existing bugs, or enter
the detailed information for the new bug
This is very similar to the Ubuntu Launchpad bug reporting functionality.
I feel that this would:
* Make reportbug a lot easier for new users
* Improve the liklihood of people bothering to read existing bugs, thereby
* Reducing the number of duplicate bugs in the BTS, thereby
* Improving the happiness and productivity of DDs everywhere
-- Package-specific info:
** Environment settings:
EDITOR="emacs"
EMAIL="nslater at bytesexual.org"
INTERFACE="urwid"
** /home/nslater/.reportbugrc:
reportbug_version "3.45"
mode standard
ui urwid
-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.26-1-686 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Versions of packages reportbug depends on:
ii apt 0.7.14+b1 Advanced front-end for dpkg
ii python 2.5.2-2 An interactive high-level object-o
ii python-central 0.6.8 register and build utility for Pyt
reportbug recommends no packages.
Versions of packages reportbug suggests:
ii debconf-utils 1.5.23 debconf utilities
ii debsums 2.0.36 verification of installed package
ii dlocate 0.96.1 fast alternative to dpkg -L and dp
ii exim4 4.69-6 metapackage to ease Exim MTA (v4)
ii exim4-daemon-light [mail-tran 4.69-6 lightweight Exim MTA (v4) daemon
ii file 4.25-1 Determines file type using "magic"
ii gnupg 1.4.9-3 GNU privacy guard - a free PGP rep
ii python-urwid 0.9.8.3-1 curses-based UI/widget library for
-- no debconf information
--
Noah Slater, http://bytesexual.org/nslater
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