Re: using gitlab (or other) issue tracker instead of mailing list?

[Axel Beckert <abe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

On Sat, Dec 31, 2016 at 05:10:43PM -0800, Timothee Cour wrote:
> Subject: using gitlab (or other) issue tracker instead of mailing list?

That discussion isn't new, see e.g.
http://www.zsh.org/mla/workers/2015/msg03353.html (which is the last
mail in that thread and contains more or less the whole thread).

> * github/gitlab are widely used so no particular signup would be
>   needed

IMHO this is just wrong. Both, GitHub as well as GitLab require you to
sign up with them to file bug reports. Just because they're popular,
doesn't mean you can ignore their requirement to sign up to report
bugs.

> * using github.gitlab, ppl can click on Watch to follow/unfollow
> individual issues or all of zsh issues to choose how much email from
> github they receive

Definitely a feature we currently don't provide and which IMHO would
be nice.

> * it would lower the barrier of entry to enter bugs, ie get bugs fixed
> faster

That depends a lot on the point of view. I know enough people for whom
having to use GitHub or GitLab is a barrier high enough to not report
bugs at all, because they would have to create an account which they
don't want to do.

For the current system, no account is necessary. You could even submit
patches or bug reports anonymously since SMTP allows to use arbitrary
sender addresses.

> * all benefits of bug tracker as opposed to mailling list [tracking bugs,
> cross references, search, syntax highlighting etc]

Both, cross references as well as a search are available via
http://www.zsh.org/mla/.

> * avoids revealing your email address

Well, that's as good as you don't need to reveal your real address to
send a mail via SMTP.

Don't get me wrong: I do have both, GitHub and GitLab accounts and I
would also use GitHub for issue tracking (but personally aren't too
happy with GitLab). But I feel I have to advocate for those who oppose
any solution which requires signing up anywhere as I can understand
those people very well. E.g. I stopped years ago to report bugs to any
project who's using Bugzilla.

My most favourite bug tracker so far is debbugs, the bug tracking
system developed for and used by Debian, but also used by e.g. the GNU
Project. You control everything by e-mail there. And control by e-mail
is IMHO mandatory for Zsh's use case, too. But debbugs is no
bug-tracking system for a single open source project. It's rather made
for a collection of projects and totally overkill if you want to use
you own instance just for a single project.

		Kind regards, Axel
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