Subject: bug reports to where?

From: Nancy McGough <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 03:44:07 -0400

Sorry if this is a FAQ but where do I send bug reports to?
Here's a minor one: The intro screen for pine 3.93 says
"Do you want to receive a doc about pine 3.92?" (at least
it does at one of my ISPs).

Thanks,
Nancy

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From: Mike Brudenell <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 09:38:19 +0100 (BST)

1.  Start Pine
2.  Give the Release Notes command (R)
3.  Give the Report Bug command (B)
4.  Select "Send a bug report to the Pine development team"

This starts a correctly addressed e-mail, with a unique(?) bug
identification number in the Subject line for reference.

As an aside, there's quite a few places in the Pine 3.93 kit where
reference is made to 3.92.  (Release notes and the (separate) man page
spring to mind).  I was assuming that as 3.93 contained little/no new
functionality the Pine Team just hadn't updated the references.  (If you
noticed, it didn't do the usual "You are using a new version of Pine" when
you first ran 3.93 after using 3.92.)

Cheers,

Mike Brudenell                                         <[email-masked]>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Computing Service, University of York, Heslington, York, YO1 5DD, UK
Tel: +44-1904-433811  FAX: +44-1904-433740  http://www.york.ac.uk/~pmb1/

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From: Steve Hubert <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 11:12:52 -0700 (PDT)

> 4.  Select "Send a bug report to the Pine development team"

Step 2 is not actually necessary.

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From: Mike Brudenell <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 09:29:49 +0100 (BST)

Gosh, you're right ... I never knew that (mainly because I so rarely use
the "Other Commands" menu command, and certainly never on the Main Menu).

You learn something every day!  :-)

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From: Barry Landy <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 12:25:12 +0100

On Thu, 18 Apr 1996, Mike Brudenell wrote:

:>Have you upgraded to Pine 3.9{2,3} yet?  This seems to be much more
:>sensible in that it offers you three alternatives:

On its way.

:>
:>	Send to local support staff
:>	Send bug report to Pine Team
:>	Send suggestion to Pine Team
:>
:>The default is the first one.

I agree that there is some hope that this will alleviate matters.

:>
:>Hopefully this intermediate screen, from which you have to select the
:>destination, may reduce "accidental" mailings.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Barry Landy                        Computer Laboratory:+44 1223 334600
Head of Systems and Development    Direct line:        +44 1223 334713
University of Cambridge Computing Service
New Museums Site                   Email:[email-masked]
Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QG

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From: Mike Brudenell <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 11:41:38 +0100

Have you upgraded to Pine 3.9{2,3} yet?  This seems to be much more
sensible in that it offers you three alternatives:

	Send to local support staff
	Send bug report to Pine Team
	Send suggestion to Pine Team

The default is the first one.

Hopefully this intermediate screen, from which you have to select the
destination, may reduce "accidental" mailings.

Cheers,

On Thu, 18 Apr 1996, Barry Landy wrote:

> On 18 Apr 1996, Mike Brudenell wrote:
> 
> :>Gosh, you're right ... I never knew that (mainly because I so rarely use
> :>the "Other Commands" menu command, and certainly never on the Main Menu).
> :>
> :>You learn something every day!  :-)
> :>
> 
> This is actually a total pain. We get a regular stream of empty bug
> reports because users type B (no doubt thinking they were typing
> something innocuous like the next door N) and then responde Y to all
> prompts! (we have the pine-bugs diverted to email to us, so at least
> Washington isnt bombarded with this). Perhaps some confirmation which is
> neither Yes or No (or ^X, as is the ultimate prompt) would make them
> think a little (but then, probably not!).
> 
> :>On Wed, 17 Apr 1996, Steve Hubert wrote:
> :>
> :>> > 1.  Start Pine
> :>> > 2.  Give the Release Notes command (R)
> :>> > 3.  Give the Report Bug command (B)
> :>> > 4.  Select "Send a bug report to the Pine development team"
> :>>
> :>> Step 2 is not actually necessary.
> :>>

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From: David L Miller <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 09:54:58 -0700 (PDT)

> 	Send to local support staff

System administrators should note that the default address for local
support is "postmaster."  If you have a better address for local
questions, sett the "local-fullname" and "local-address" variables in
your /usr/local/lib/pine.conf file.

> 	Send suggestion to Pine Team

These addresses can be changed too.  If you can set these to local
addresses to pre-screen reports, we would appreciate it...

> destination, may reduce "accidental" mailings.

Indeed these changes do seem to have reduced the accidental mailings
to pine-bugs.  We recieve ~100 "accidental" mailings/day from Pine
3.90/3.91 users :(

|\ |  |\/|  David L. Miller    [email-masked]  (206) 685-6240
|/ |_ |  |  Software Engineer, Pine Development Team   (206) 685-4045 (FAX)
University of Washington, Networks & Distributed Computing, JE-20
4545 15th Ave NE, Seattle WA 98105, USA

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From: Barry Landy <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 19:36:45 +0000 (GMT)

On Thu, 18 Apr 1996, David L Miller wrote:

:>On Thu, 18 Apr 1996, Mike Brudenell wrote:
:>
:>> 	Send to local support staff
:>
:>System administrators should note that the default address for local
:>support is "postmaster."  If you have a better address for local
:>questions, sett the "local-fullname" and "local-address" variables in
:>your /usr/local/lib/pine.conf file.
:>
:>> 	Send bug report to Pine Team
:>> 	Send suggestion to Pine Team
:>>
:>
:>These addresses can be changed too.  If you can set these to local
:>addresses to pre-screen reports, we would appreciate it...
:>

Please dont forget that while it is easy to change the defaults on a
shared unix system via pine.conf[.fixed], it is not the same for the PC
versions where it is all too likely that what comes out of the box is
what will be used.

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From: Barry Landy <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 11:22:12 +0000

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From: Steve Hubert <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 23:24:29 -0700 (PDT)

Sorry, it sounds like we've managed to reduce the number of bug reports to
us but have increased the number for you.  That certainly wasn't our
intent (Well, actually it was, but we only wanted people to send you stuff
if they really meant to :-).  We'll spend more thought time on it.  Thanks
for letting us know.

Steve Hubert <[email-masked]>
Networks and Distributed Computing, Univ. of Washington, Seattle

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From: Mike Brudenell <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 09:35:59 +0100 (BST)

1.  I think that having the "B" (Bug Report command) available at the Main
Menu as well as the Release Notes screen is good (even though I didn't
know of it until recently!:-) because "Release Notes" is definitely not an
obvious place to go in order to report a problem.

2.  I strongly suspect that the revised Bug Report front page (with its
(default of) local support, pine team bugs, and pine team suggestions)
should help alleviate accidents.

Basically I personally think you've *improved* things, not worsened them!

Cheers,

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From: Barry Landy <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 10:47:12 +0100 (BST)

On Fri, 19 Apr 1996, Mike Brudenell wrote:

:>1.  I think that having the "B" (Bug Report command) available at the Main
:>Menu as well as the Release Notes screen is good (even though I didn't
:>know of it until recently!:-) because "Release Notes" is definitely not an
:>obvious place to go in order to report a problem.
:>
:>2.  I strongly suspect that the revised Bug Report front page (with its
:>(default of) local support, pine team bugs, and pine team suggestions)
:>should help alleviate accidents.
:>
:>Basically I personally think you've *improved* things, not worsened them!

I agree with all three of the above points! My only criticism (based on
correspondence with someone who sent a "bug-report" and did not even
realise that he had!) is that at least one of the screens before the
"send message" screen should require a response which is none of Y N or
default.