Re: Brainstorming features for issues.guix.gnu.org

[Björn Höfling]

Hi Ricardo,

On Thu, 26 Mar 2020 09:49:12 +0100
Ricardo Wurmus <address@hidden> wrote:

> Hello Guix!
> 
> I want issues.guix.gnu.org to become more useful for all of us.  It’s
> easy to get lost in a deluge of bug reports and patch submissions, so
> our tools should allow us to stay afloat.
> 
> Do you use issues.guix.gnu.org?  If you aren’t: what workflow do you
> have to review patch submissions?

I prefer my mailbox, with sometimes looking through the Debbugs web
page. I have to admit, I'm not using it and I think it is not
intuitive. It is as colorful as the bug trackers at github.com, but not
as useable as them.

Here are my suggestions for mumi, some of them already said by others:

* First of all, I find this mixture very confusing: Is this about bugs
or is this about patches? I really don't know, and the start page is
ambigious about it too: 

"Guix /patch/ tracker
This is a web frontend to the Guix /issue/ trackers.
/Issues/ of interest
Priority /bugs/"

I would prefer two trackers: 
https://issues.guix.gnu.org/ for bugs and
httsp://patches.guix.gnu.org/ for patches.

* Is it intentionally that there still is a http site? I would have
expected a redirect onto https.

* http[s]://issues.guix.info/ is also still alive. Shouldn't it redirect
to http[s]://issues.guix.gnu.org/?

* If you search for something, you get away from the homepage and
tips are missing. There should be a "help/tooltip" button near the
search input that explains the query language.

* If you enter a query, that query should be kept in the input field.
Currently, it is discarded. That would make it more easy to update your
query.

* I would expect the home page to present the newest issues first, and
only open ones.

* It is not clear to me how long a closed issue is still visible on the
home-page. Is it still an "Issue of interest" if it is closed? 

* Sorting issues by columns would be cool.

* Mumi has no paging: It only presents one page of issues, but it
doesn't say how many are there in total nor does it page through all
other pages of issues.

* That means: If I search only for open issues, I get one page ranging
from 2013 until 2017, nothing newer:
https://issues.guix.gnu.org/search?query=is%3Aopen
This is unsatisfying.

* In that list, it is not clear what a red/orange colored bug-number
means: A tool-tip would be nice.

* As others mentioned, linking and explaining the tags (like easy)
is missing.

* A long desired feature is having general tags. It took me a very long
time until I realized that Debbugs allows user-tags. What about using a
common email address like "issues AT guix.gnu.org" and add user-tags
for that address, like "python", "core-updates", "release-1.1.x", etc.

* I still don't see that all bugs and patches from the mailing list are
part of the mumi issues list?

* The HTML could be responsive.

* The query syntax examples are only on the home page. Please repeat
them also on the help page.

* Either I don't understand the "date:<start>..<end>" semantics or it
is broken. The range yesterday..today lists no issues after 2015. Not
the "yesterday" I expected...:

https://issues.guix.gnu.org/search?query=date%3Ayesterday..today

With numbers, it gets even more strange:
https://issues.guix.gnu.org/search?query=date%3A2020-03-29..2020-03-30
--> Nothing found.

Some more, but why are these selected?:
https://issues.guix.gnu.org/search?query=date%3A2020-03-29..2020-03-30

* Mdate does not find anything?
https://issues.guix.gnu.org/search?query=mdate%3A2w..12h

Despite all the critics, thanks for caring and improving mumi.

Björn

pgp8lkJT9TYUj.pgp
Description: OpenPGP digital signature