Re: [gnugo-devel] bug in find_neighbor_dragons()

[Arend Bayer]

Inge Wallin wrote:

> I found it unbelieveable that you even considered if it would be a good
> idea *not* to fix a bug even though it creates a few FAILs.
> 
> I have seen this thinking in a lot of cases, many of them being my
> patches.  I once started a long mail about this, but I never sent it
> because I didn't think I had managed to formulate my thoughts in a
> neutral manner.

[...]

> Now, I understand that some times there are "bugs" or perhaps rather
> simple solutions to complex problems that have to be used since the full
> solution is simply not feasible, or perhaps that the infrastructure in the
> rest of the program is not ready yet.
> 
> But what I see is a tendency to hold on to these oversimplifications and
> to stick to old solutions even though the time to improve them has clearly
> come.

Can you give some examples where you think we are sticking to old
solutions and new, better solutions keep getting thrown away? (Due to
negative regression breakage, or due to s.th. else.)

We often put in bugfixes that cause more FAILs than PASSes. But the
truth is, before someone has analyzed the FAILs in detail, there is a good
chance that they actually show a real problem _with the patch_ (unless
it is an obvious bugfix, of course). I have thrown away many of my
patches before they ever reached the list.

Arend