How to proceed with "little bugs"

This is the place for general discussion and updates about the ZXDB Database. This forum is not specific to Spectrum Computing.

Moderator: druellan

User avatar
PeterJ
Site Admin
Posts: 6858
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: How to proceed with "little bugs"

Post by PeterJ »

If the Reviewed icon is added, then I'm fine with this [mention]Einar Saukas[/mention].
User avatar
PeterJ
Site Admin
Posts: 6858
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: How to proceed with "little bugs"

Post by PeterJ »

Einar Saukas wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 3:48 pm Here's a quick list of fully "reviewed" threads that could be locked now (if there are no objections):
All done. Reviewed added and locked.
User avatar
Einar Saukas
Bugaboo
Posts: 3070
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:48 pm

Re: How to proceed with "little bugs"

Post by Einar Saukas »

Here are my opinion about some of the other ideas that were mentioned:
  • Personally I don't really mind if people provide new reports in a single generic "Little bugs in the database" thread, or create new threads for each one. For us, the amount of work is roughly the same. It probably helps to create a new thread for bug reports that require some discussion, and to just add a new post to the generic thread for something simpler, because it makes these discussions easier to read for others. But for [mention]druellan[/mention] and I, that need to read everything anyway, it doesn't really make much difference, so feel free to do whatever you prefer.
  • A while ago we discussed in this forum the idea of a separate ticketing system to track bug reports, but discarded the idea because nobody would pay attention to it except ourselves. Posting bugs here in the forum and marking them with a "Reviewed" icon works much better, since it's useful to keep track of bug reports, and everybody can easily see what's going on. Notice we already have something somewhat similar to a bug tracking system at https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/help.php (although for other kinds of bugs that also need to be researched) and people rarely visit or provide feedback about it!
  • We have discussed these other ideas for bug reports too. If we used a submission form for bug reports instead of posting them in the forum, it would have the "advantage" that only [mention]druellan[/mention] and I see how many bug are still pending, so nobody would be concerned about the amount of bug reports still pending... That's how old WoS worked (new WoS too). But our philosophy is to be as open as possible, so I would rather have this discussion than pretend we don't have pending issues.
  • Another option would be providing a submission form to bug reports, but afterwards show all submitted bug reports directly in the game pages at SC. But this option also has several disadvantages: it would look confusing for other people looking for games, and it wouldn't provide a convenient way for others to discuss and comment bug reports (starting a discussion in the forum referencing a bug report somewhere else would be also confusing). Also what to do after a bug is fixed? If we keep the bug report in the game page, it would look even more confusing. If we delete it, we may lose useful explanation about the reason this information was fixed. Using the forum for bug reports solves all these problems. And another reason is... frankly I'm also convinced nobody would pay much attention to bug reports directly in the game page, instead of the forum. For years, SC game pages has been showing conflicting information about author credits (between old WoS and SPOT/SPEX) for top games like Arkanoid, Equinox, and The Arc of Yesod, but nobody ever said anything about them! It's only when I explicitly post a question in the forum about authors of an specific game, that I get any feedback. Placing bug reports (i.e any data that differs from what we currently have about a certain game) directly in game pages instead of the forum would just ensure they would be forgotten too. I believe it's much better to keep everything in the forum, where we can easily discuss everything, ensure it's validated, then update the game data directly. It takes time, but it provides better results in the long run.
User avatar
PeterJ
Site Admin
Posts: 6858
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: How to proceed with "little bugs"

Post by PeterJ »

[mention]Einar Saukas[/mention]

For me single threads are just more time consuming. I prefer threads as we have them, but maybe limit each one to 10 pages, so we can feel a sense of achievement by closing and locking them!

Lets not spend time setting up more systems, when the current system is fine. We just need to spend a little time going back and marking those that have been fixed. It will probably take as much time as the combined typing time in this thread :-)

Have a good weekend all.

Peter
User avatar
Einar Saukas
Bugaboo
Posts: 3070
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:48 pm

Re: How to proceed with "little bugs"

Post by Einar Saukas »

PeterJ wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 3:44 pmI don't see the benefit of locking until all the issues are fixed
Just to be clear, the idea is locking any thread about bugfixes only after all bug reports in this thread were processed!

When there are still bug reports to be processed, we may still need to request further clarification, as I did recently. It won't help if we lock a thread before it's done.
User avatar
PeterJ
Site Admin
Posts: 6858
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: How to proceed with "little bugs"

Post by PeterJ »

Einar Saukas wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 5:12 pm

Just to be clear, the idea is locking any thread about bugfixes only after all bug reports in this thread were processed!
Super duper! Thanks for the clarification.
User avatar
Einar Saukas
Bugaboo
Posts: 3070
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:48 pm

Re: How to proceed with "little bugs"

Post by Einar Saukas »

So what about my suggestion to create a new section called "ZXDB Fixes"? Any objections?

Also can it be done easily, without modifying links referencing existing posts?
User avatar
PeterJ
Site Admin
Posts: 6858
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: How to proceed with "little bugs"

Post by PeterJ »

Einar Saukas wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 5:15 pm So what about my suggestion to create a new section called "ZXDB Fixes"? Any objections?

Also can it be done easily, without modifying links referencing existing posts?
Yes, I will do that over the weekend. If we move threads I think it breaks links, but will check. There is something in phpBB which leaves shadow links.

Edit: Done - Locked for now. Will email you over the weekend.
User avatar
Ast A. Moore
Rick Dangerous
Posts: 2640
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 3:16 pm

Re: How to proceed with "little bugs"

Post by Ast A. Moore »

Einar Saukas wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 5:15 pm So what about my suggestion to create a new section called "ZXDB Fixes"? Any objections?
I second that. Call it something along the lines of ZXDB Errata and Addenda and make it a sticky perhaps. Then, as time permits, sieve through the old threads and lock them once the bugs reported therein have been fixed.
Every man should plant a tree, build a house, and write a ZX Spectrum game.

Author of A Yankee in Iraq, a 50 fps shoot-’em-up—the first game to utilize the floating bus on the +2A/+3,
and zasm Z80 Assembler syntax highlighter.
User avatar
PeterJ
Site Admin
Posts: 6858
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: How to proceed with "little bugs"

Post by PeterJ »

Ast A. Moore wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 5:56 pm I second that. Call it something along the lines of ZXDB Errata and Addenda and make it a sticky perhaps. Then, as time permits, sieve through the old threads and lock them once the bugs reported therein have been fixed.
Only threads can be sticky, but I concur with the rest of your comments as long as stuff is fixed in chronological order.
User avatar
PeterJ
Site Admin
Posts: 6858
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: How to proceed with "little bugs"

Post by PeterJ »

OK. Little bugs 3 has moved to ZXDB fixes. I have moved it in such away that any links to the old location should still work. Test it over the weekend, and assuming nothing is broken I will move the rest on Monday.
I have also copied across the special rights for [mention]druellan[/mention]
User avatar
Einar Saukas
Bugaboo
Posts: 3070
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:48 pm

Re: How to proceed with "little bugs"

Post by Einar Saukas »

PeterJ wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 6:35 pm OK. Little bugs 3 has moved to ZXDB fixes. I have moved it in such away that any links to the old location should still work. Test it over the weekend, and assuming nothing is broken I will move the rest on Monday.
I have also copied across the special rights for @druellan
Something went wrong. Right now, "Little bugs in the database 3" appears on both sections!
User avatar
PeterJ
Site Admin
Posts: 6858
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: How to proceed with "little bugs"

Post by PeterJ »

Yes, but the one in the old section has a special icon. It's a shadow, so it maintains links Einar.

https://wiki.phpbb.com/Shadow_topic#:~: ... pic%20icon.
User avatar
Einar Saukas
Bugaboo
Posts: 3070
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:48 pm

Re: How to proceed with "little bugs"

Post by Einar Saukas »

Sorry, you are right!
User avatar
PeterJ
Site Admin
Posts: 6858
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: How to proceed with "little bugs"

Post by PeterJ »

Einar Saukas wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 8:50 pm Sorry, you are right!
Nothing to be sorry about [mention]Einar Saukas[/mention]. I didn't know about shadow topics until this afternoon!
User avatar
PeterJ
Site Admin
Posts: 6858
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: How to proceed with "little bugs"

Post by PeterJ »

Hi [mention]8BitAG[/mention],

Just to give you an update. I've started as mentioned going through the first little bugs thread (which was the one before Dario started) and marking those which are already done. I'm also helping with the easy fix ones (such as change of classification) or similar). I won't be getting involved in the ones which need more investigation (as [mention]Einar Saukas[/mention] and [mention]druellan[/mention] look at those and I don't think my contributions would help). When I've finished I will report back to Einar and Dario the ones which need their help (These will be the ones without the reviewed mark).

So in summary you should see some of your earlier ones fixed in the next couple of updates. I hope this will go some way to resolving your concerns.

Peter
User avatar
PeterJ
Site Admin
Posts: 6858
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 7:19 pm
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: How to proceed with "little bugs"

Post by PeterJ »

I've made a start at moving threads over to the new ZXDB fixes section.

Please can everyone help with the following:

If you see what can be considered a ZXDB bug report that is not in the the correct sub-forum please PM me so I can move it.

If you spot any bug reports which have been fixed, but don't have the 'reviewed' icon please PM me with the details.

Thanks
Post Reply