maria-developers team mailing list archive

[Bryan Alsdorf <bryan@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Lenz,

Lenz Grimmer wrote:
> Hi,
>
> given the recent news about Launchpad, I'd like to contribute another comment,
> bearing the risk of beating a dead horse...
>
> On 07/15/2009 05:11 PM, Michael Widenius wrote:
>
> > We have internally just been discussing the possibility to use Eventum
>           ^^^^^^^^^^
> > for a bug tracker as we probably want to use Eventum for other things
> > internally in Monty Program Ab anyway.
>
> Any reason why this discussion was not done in public? I thought that having
> an open public dialog with the community is one of the key aspects of your
> company? Just wondering.

Well it was first discussed when we were discussing my employment and secondly on a 
company conference call. There was no big email discussion before my email to the list.

> And note that we're not arguing against using Eventum where it fits the
> purpose! We're merely questioning its suitability as a bug tracking tool and
> the need for modifying it to become one.
>
> > The problem with the Launchpad bug system is that it's inferior in
> > many aspect to what for example MySQL's bug tracking systems is.
> > It's so much extra work that needs to be done to get to this level
> > that I don't think that the Launchpad developers will ever do it.
>
> Well, now that the Launchpad code base has been released as Open Source, you
> can actually do it yourself and contribute your improvements back!

This is what I thought when I saw the news, it is something I certainly consider an option 
but I am not the user of the system.

>   https://dev.launchpad.net/
>
> > Because the Launchpad system doesn't look like it will work when we
> > get lots of bug reports in different areas.  It's also very limited
> > in the number of fields, categories, bug solving steps etc.
>
> Have you looked at how the Ubuntu project uses the Launchpad bug tracker? Or
> Drizzle? If they are able to work with it, why shouldn't you?
>
> I've worked with a number of bug tracking systems in my career (primarily
> Bugzilla, the MySQL bug tracker and now Launchpad bugs). From all of these,
> the Launchpad bug tracker was the most convenient one to use and provided just
> enough functionality without becoming overwhelmingly complex or cumbersome to
> use. Plus it beats all other systems when it comes to integration with the
> source code management system.
>
> > Don't think that will work.  For example, one could point to the MySQL
> > bug system and say that we would like to have all categories and all
> > fields that exists in the MySQL bug system. When this is done, then we
> > can start talking about the other features that doesn't exists.
>
> The question remains if all these fields are really necessary. The MySQL bug
> tracker has become quite convoluted with fields. Or are you just trying to
> continue using a similar system because you are used to it? In that case you
> could just branch off the source of bugs.mysql.com:
>
>  bzr branch http://bugs.mysql.com/bzr/ bugs.mysql.com

If you have ever looked at the bugs.mysql.com code you will know why no one with any bit 
of sanity would run it.

> > Agree that reinventing a wheel is a distraction. But so is trying to
> > use a square wheel and claim that 'it works for me so it should work
> > for you'.
>
> I am not convinced, but in the end it's your decision, time and money...

At the initial time of discussion there was no possible way to customize bugs on launchpad 
so using a 3rd party system was the only way to get some functionality we wanted. Eventum 
was chosen because I am familiar with it and can easily shape it to fit our needs. However 
since LP is now open source improving it is an option that we should explore.

> > Launchpad Blueprints can't be used as it lacks many of the features we
> > are using in worklog.
>
> Again, now is your chance to fix and improve them :)
>
> > Actually, we are extending worklog to make it collaboration friendly
> > and it as far as I can see, it will be more collaboration friendly
> > that we could ever do with Launchpad.
>
> I believe it when I see it - the WorkLog code base is quite a convoluted mess
> and anyone having to hack on this has my sympathies.

I haven't looked at the code nor do I use worklog on a daily basis so I am not going to 
comment on this portion.

Best Regards,
--
Bryan Alsdorf, Lead Web Developer
Monty Program, AB. http://askmonty.org