Re: About reports.

[Elliot Lee <sopwith cuc edu>]

On Mon, 16 Mar 1998, Kjartan Maraas wrote:

> First, what are the dependencies between the different modules in gnome.
> When do updates in a specific module require a recompile of other
> modules?

Everything uses gtk+. Virtually everything uses gnome-libs (gnome-libs
uses gtk+). There are some programs that use gnome-guile (gnome-guile
uses gnome-libs and gtk+). The rest should be free-standing.

> Second, what kind of reports are useful to the developers in general?
> 
> Should I report compiler-warnings when I compile a module?

Hmm, it probably depends on the state of the program you're compiling.
Most programs are not yet bug-free enough to warrant worrying about
compiler warnings, but if a developer puts a note in the README for a
program soliciting compiler warnings, that's up to them ;-)

> What should a meaningful report contain?

My Dream Bug Report (or pretty close :-)

- What the environment is (what versions of everything, and if you're
  eating out of CVS, exactly when you did a 'make install' of each module).
- What the problem is.
- How to reproduce it.
	. It is helpful If you can provide a general case instead of a
	  specific case. For example, me telling raster that ee
	  refuses to load pixmaps with a certain characteristic in common
	  is much more useful than me telling him that it refuses to load
	  mc/icons/mail.xpm.
	. If it's a segfault, run the program in gdb and paste a "where"
	  as well.

Hope this helps,
-- Elliot					http://www.redhat.com/
Chicken Little was right.