Sunday, July 29, 2007

See a bug, log a bug

A little word of advice to anyone who thinks they have found a bug in JFace Data Binding. After performing due diligence and the behavior seems to be incorrect, disagrees with the documentation, etc. log a bug. For some there's a tendency to post to the newsgroup with "Is this a bug?" somewhere in the message. This is OK to do but it's not necessary. If you think you have found a bug go ahead and log it to bugzilla. If it ends up not being a bug we'll close it as WONTFIX or INVALID, depending upon what is appropriate. This is actually easier on us, the committers and contributors, as we don't have to monitor multiple outlets for bugs. If you still aren't comfortable with going directly to bugzilla go ahead and post to the newsgroup. But if there is no answer for a day or two go ahead and log it to bugzilla.

Also don't take a resolution of INVALID or WONTFIX as a slap in the face or as anyone saying "you shouldn't have logged this". These are perfectly valid resolutions and are an acceptable way to declare that we disagree with the assertion or that our library is not the appropriate place for the functionality. Basically don't allow these resolutions to keep you from logging other bugs. There is never a negative tone attached to a resolution. If we think that the question should have initially gone to the newsgroup we'll say so. Don't get me wrong, bugzilla is not the newsgroup. You should ask "how do I?" sort of questions there. But if you have found a bug don't hesitate to log it to bugzilla.

Keep up the bug reports, enhancement requests, newsgroup posts, and feedback. We appreciate every bit of it.