Re: GNOME plans

[Scott Johnson <sj aracnet com>]

On Fri, 30 Jul 1999, Elliot Lee wrote:

> Hello GNOME users-developers-and-loyal-fans,
> 
> GNOME development hasn't been very focused, we aren't making quite as fast
> progress as is possible, and some bugs are still lingering. I've discussed
> it with Miguel, the other RHAD hackers gave lots of impetus to the plane,
> and the gnome-hackers seem to be in agreement with it, so now I put it to
> you for consideration.
> 
> 			GNOME 1.0.50 Plan

[plan snipped, sounds good to me--but what do I know? :) ]

> What is a bug (for purposes of this release)?
> 	Program crashes or otherwise fails to complete requested operation.
> 
> 	g_(warning|assert|error|return_if_*fail) seen.
> 
> Possibilities for finding them
> 	Have gnome-libs automatically send e-mail to QA person when a
> 	strange signal or warning is encountered.

Careful.  DON'T do this a automagically... many customers, particularly
ones concerned about security, would not at all appreciate the software
they use sending emails out behind their back.  Even for something as
innocuous as a bug report.

Doing it with their permission, OTOH, would not be a bad thing.  

How about this?  When an assertion, unhandled signal, or similar condition
occurs--rather than just logging to stderr or to a logfile, why not pop
up a dialog box (in a separate process, if necessary) with the details--ie



Fatal Application Error: (I assumine Microsoft doesn't have a TM on this)

The application "<appname>" has 
(followed by one of)
encountered an assertion failure on line # of file <filename>: <optional
message>
(or, for well-defined signals)
encountered a [segmentation fault|whatever]
(or, for other signals that aren't handled)
received an unexpected signal SIG<whatever>
(or, for unhandled C++ exceptions)
received an unhandled exception <details>
(you get the picture...)

and must be terminated.  This may be the result of a hardware problem, but
may the result of a defect in the software.  Press "OK" to close the 
application; press "Mail Bug Report" to automatically email a bug report
to the development team.  Only the information needed to report the bug
will be sent.

---

Many applications when they encounter a fatal problem crash silently,
without displaying anything to the user.  They may well be printing 
something to a log file somewhere, but the average user does not know
how to go looking for the log files.  When software crashes, it is 
nice if the software at least acknowledges that there is something
wrong...


My two cents...

------------------------------------------------------------------------
engineer_scotty (no, not that one) -- consumer of  fine ales and lagers
some days you're the fire hydrant, some days you're the dog | go blazers
no small furry creatures were harmed in the creation of this .signature
------------------------------------------------------------------------