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Posted to dev@openoffice.apache.org by Rob Weir <ro...@apache.org> on 2012/10/24 21:08:41 UTC
[PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
As you have probably noticed, I'm engaged in a variety of initiatives
to grow the community, bring in more volunteers, etc. One additional
piece that I think would be useful is to add a new field to Bugzilla
to indicate the difficulty level of the bug. Of course, this will
often not be known. But in some cases, we do know, and where we do
know we can indicate this.
What this allows us to do is then have search filters that return only
open easy bugs. These are ideal for new developer volunteers on the
project who are looking for items that match their lesser familiarity
with the code. It also allows a developer to step up to more
challenging bugs over time.
A similar approach, which they called "easy hacks", was successfully
used by LibreOffice.
If there are no objections, I'll add a new field to Bugzilla called
"cf_difficulty_level", and which a drop down UI with the following
choices:
UNKNOWN (default)
TRIVIAL
EASY
MODERATE
HARD
WIZARD
(I'm certainly open to variations on the names)
I'd then rely on other developers to help "seed" the database with
some TRIVIAL and EASY bugs, so new volunteers will have something to
work with as they familiarize themselves with the project.
I'll wait 72 hours, etc.
Regards,
-Rob
Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Posted by Joost Andrae <Jo...@gmx.de>.
Hi Rob,
that's a cool idea.
+1 but I would use the word complexity instead of difficulty.
Usually the issue tracker database is customer driven (severity) but a
helper field to sort bugs by complexity will help developers to focus on
more complex issues.
> If there are no objections, I'll add a new field to Bugzilla called
> "cf_difficulty_level", and which a drop down UI with the following
> choices:
>
> UNKNOWN (default)
> TRIVIAL
> EASY
> MODERATE
> HARD
> WIZARD
>
Kind regards, Joost
Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Posted by Louis Suárez-Potts <lu...@gmail.com>.
Emphatic +1
Louis
On 12-10-24, at 15:08 , Rob Weir <ro...@apache.org> wrote:
> As you have probably noticed, I'm engaged in a variety of initiatives
> to grow the community, bring in more volunteers, etc. One additional
> piece that I think would be useful is to add a new field to Bugzilla
> to indicate the difficulty level of the bug. Of course, this will
> often not be known. But in some cases, we do know, and where we do
> know we can indicate this.
>
> What this allows us to do is then have search filters that return only
> open easy bugs. These are ideal for new developer volunteers on the
> project who are looking for items that match their lesser familiarity
> with the code. It also allows a developer to step up to more
> challenging bugs over time.
>
> A similar approach, which they called "easy hacks", was successfully
> used by LibreOffice.
>
> If there are no objections, I'll add a new field to Bugzilla called
> "cf_difficulty_level", and which a drop down UI with the following
> choices:
>
> UNKNOWN (default)
> TRIVIAL
> EASY
> MODERATE
> HARD
> WIZARD
>
> (I'm certainly open to variations on the names)
>
> I'd then rely on other developers to help "seed" the database with
> some TRIVIAL and EASY bugs, so new volunteers will have something to
> work with as they familiarize themselves with the project.
>
> I'll wait 72 hours, etc.
>
> Regards,
>
> -Rob
Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Posted by jan iversen <ja...@gmail.com>.
+1
On 24 October 2012 21:08, Rob Weir <ro...@apache.org> wrote:
> As you have probably noticed, I'm engaged in a variety of initiatives
> to grow the community, bring in more volunteers, etc. One additional
> piece that I think would be useful is to add a new field to Bugzilla
> to indicate the difficulty level of the bug. Of course, this will
> often not be known. But in some cases, we do know, and where we do
> know we can indicate this.
>
> What this allows us to do is then have search filters that return only
> open easy bugs. These are ideal for new developer volunteers on the
> project who are looking for items that match their lesser familiarity
> with the code. It also allows a developer to step up to more
> challenging bugs over time.
>
> A similar approach, which they called "easy hacks", was successfully
> used by LibreOffice.
>
> If there are no objections, I'll add a new field to Bugzilla called
> "cf_difficulty_level", and which a drop down UI with the following
> choices:
>
> UNKNOWN (default)
> TRIVIAL
> EASY
> MODERATE
> HARD
> WIZARD
>
> (I'm certainly open to variations on the names)
>
> I'd then rely on other developers to help "seed" the database with
> some TRIVIAL and EASY bugs, so new volunteers will have something to
> work with as they familiarize themselves with the project.
>
> I'll wait 72 hours, etc.
>
> Regards,
>
> -Rob
>
Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Posted by Herbert Duerr <hd...@apache.org>.
On 24.10.2012 21:08, Rob Weir wrote:
> As you have probably noticed, I'm engaged in a variety of initiatives
> to grow the community, bring in more volunteers, etc. One additional
> piece that I think would be useful is to add a new field to Bugzilla
> to indicate the difficulty level of the bug. Of course, this will
> often not be known. But in some cases, we do know, and where we do
> know we can indicate this.
>
> What this allows us to do is then have search filters that return only
> open easy bugs. These are ideal for new developer volunteers on the
> project who are looking for items that match their lesser familiarity
> with the code. It also allows a developer to step up to more
> challenging bugs over time.
FWIW there is a keyword "easy2dev" http://s.apache.org/easy2dev_open
that was used to mark "easy to develop" issues.
> If there are no objections, I'll add a new field to Bugzilla called
> "cf_difficulty_level", and which a drop down UI with the following
> choices:
>
> UNKNOWN (default)
> TRIVIAL
> EASY
> MODERATE
> HARD
> WIZARD
>
> (I'm certainly open to variations on the names)
Using a separate field and getting rid of the easy2dev keyword is a good
idea. I agree with Regina on the level naming and I also like Dennis'
logarithmic scale idea.
I'd also like to point out that there are several dimensions to it:
- the difficulty from a language/debugging-skills standpoint
- the difficulty for any developer new to the codebase
E.g. UNO is rarely used outside of the OpenOffice ecosystem. Using UNO's
multiple inheritance feature to write alternatives to existing old-style
interfaces might be a very challenging task for newcomers but a trivial
task to someone familiar with these concepts.
Herbert
Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Posted by Albino B Neto <bi...@apache.org>.
Hi.
On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 5:08 PM, Rob Weir <ro...@apache.org> wrote:
> As you have probably noticed, I'm engaged in a variety of initiatives
> to grow the community, bring in more volunteers, etc. One additional
> piece that I think would be useful is to add a new field to Bugzilla
> to indicate the difficulty level of the bug. Of course, this will
> often not be known. But in some cases, we do know, and where we do
> know we can indicate this.
>
> What this allows us to do is then have search filters that return only
> open easy bugs. These are ideal for new developer volunteers on the
> project who are looking for items that match their lesser familiarity
> with the code. It also allows a developer to step up to more
> challenging bugs over time.
>
> A similar approach, which they called "easy hacks", was successfully
> used by LibreOffice.
>
> If there are no objections, I'll add a new field to Bugzilla called
> "cf_difficulty_level", and which a drop down UI with the following
> choices:
>
> UNKNOWN (default)
> TRIVIAL
> EASY
> MODERATE
> HARD
> WIZARD
>
> (I'm certainly open to variations on the names)
>
> I'd then rely on other developers to help "seed" the database with
> some TRIVIAL and EASY bugs, so new volunteers will have something to
> work with as they familiarize themselves with the project.
>
> I'll wait 72 hours, etc.
>
> Regards,
>
> -Rob
+1
--
Albino
RE: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Posted by "Dennis E. Hamilton" <de...@acm.org>.
+1 Great question
I think severity has to do with the significance to the reporter. It is generally not for the resolver to deal with.
Difficulty is an assessment about the effort/skill required to resolve the (confirmed) issue. The cause may be deep and the resolution deeper.
-----Original Message-----
From: Kay Schenk [mailto:kay.schenk@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 13:28
To: ooo-dev@incubator.apache.org
Subject: Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
On 10/24/2012 01:04 PM, Regina Henschel wrote:
> Hi Rob,
>
> Rob Weir schrieb:
>> As you have probably noticed, I'm engaged in a variety of initiatives
>> to grow the community, bring in more volunteers, etc. One additional
>> piece that I think would be useful is to add a new field to Bugzilla
>> to indicate the difficulty level of the bug. Of course, this will
>> often not be known. But in some cases, we do know, and where we do
>> know we can indicate this.
>>
>> What this allows us to do is then have search filters that return only
>> open easy bugs. These are ideal for new developer volunteers on the
>> project who are looking for items that match their lesser familiarity
>> with the code. It also allows a developer to step up to more
>> challenging bugs over time.
>>
>> A similar approach, which they called "easy hacks", was successfully
>> used by LibreOffice.
>>
>> If there are no objections, I'll add a new field to Bugzilla called
>> "cf_difficulty_level", and which a drop down UI with the following
>> choices:
>>
>> UNKNOWN (default)
>> TRIVIAL
>> EASY
>> MODERATE
>> HARD
>> WIZARD
We have a "severity" field right now as well. Will these two fields be
confusing to some? How can we differentiate them, and, more's to the
point, to the reporter? Or do you see this as something that the
responder to the bug changes?
>
> WIZARD is used in AOO UI in the meaning of 'assistant' or step by step
> workflow. Therefore it might be not understood here. I need to look up
> other meanings in a dictionary. I would drop it. HARD as highest step is
> sufficient.
>
> TRIVIAL sounds devaluating to me. Perhaps BEGINNER or STARTER is more
> neutral? Being able to start is not only a question, whether the task is
> easy or not from an objective point of view. Beyond that a mentor is
> needed. Perhaps a category MENTORED instead of TRIVIAL is useful. A
> senior developer would set it (and put himself in CC) if he is willing
> to guide a newcomer.
>
>>
>> (I'm certainly open to variations on the names)
>>
>> I'd then rely on other developers to help "seed" the database with
>> some TRIVIAL and EASY bugs, so new volunteers will have something to
>> work with as they familiarize themselves with the project.
>>
>> I'll wait 72 hours, etc.
>
> In general I thing it is a good idea. Using Bugzilla has the advantage,
> that it is not necessary to hold a Wiki page in sync with Bugzilla.
>
> Kind regards
> Regina
>
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MzK
"Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never
dealt with a cat."
-- Robert Heinlein
Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Posted by Kay Schenk <ka...@gmail.com>.
On 10/24/2012 01:04 PM, Regina Henschel wrote:
> Hi Rob,
>
> Rob Weir schrieb:
>> As you have probably noticed, I'm engaged in a variety of initiatives
>> to grow the community, bring in more volunteers, etc. One additional
>> piece that I think would be useful is to add a new field to Bugzilla
>> to indicate the difficulty level of the bug. Of course, this will
>> often not be known. But in some cases, we do know, and where we do
>> know we can indicate this.
>>
>> What this allows us to do is then have search filters that return only
>> open easy bugs. These are ideal for new developer volunteers on the
>> project who are looking for items that match their lesser familiarity
>> with the code. It also allows a developer to step up to more
>> challenging bugs over time.
>>
>> A similar approach, which they called "easy hacks", was successfully
>> used by LibreOffice.
>>
>> If there are no objections, I'll add a new field to Bugzilla called
>> "cf_difficulty_level", and which a drop down UI with the following
>> choices:
>>
>> UNKNOWN (default)
>> TRIVIAL
>> EASY
>> MODERATE
>> HARD
>> WIZARD
We have a "severity" field right now as well. Will these two fields be
confusing to some? How can we differentiate them, and, more's to the
point, to the reporter? Or do you see this as something that the
responder to the bug changes?
>
> WIZARD is used in AOO UI in the meaning of 'assistant' or step by step
> workflow. Therefore it might be not understood here. I need to look up
> other meanings in a dictionary. I would drop it. HARD as highest step is
> sufficient.
>
> TRIVIAL sounds devaluating to me. Perhaps BEGINNER or STARTER is more
> neutral? Being able to start is not only a question, whether the task is
> easy or not from an objective point of view. Beyond that a mentor is
> needed. Perhaps a category MENTORED instead of TRIVIAL is useful. A
> senior developer would set it (and put himself in CC) if he is willing
> to guide a newcomer.
>
>>
>> (I'm certainly open to variations on the names)
>>
>> I'd then rely on other developers to help "seed" the database with
>> some TRIVIAL and EASY bugs, so new volunteers will have something to
>> work with as they familiarize themselves with the project.
>>
>> I'll wait 72 hours, etc.
>
> In general I thing it is a good idea. Using Bugzilla has the advantage,
> that it is not necessary to hold a Wiki page in sync with Bugzilla.
>
> Kind regards
> Regina
>
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MzK
"Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never
dealt with a cat."
-- Robert Heinlein
Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Posted by Kevin Grignon <ke...@gmail.com>.
On Thursday, October 25, 2012, Donald Whytock wrote:
> Apache Camel uses an "Estimated Complexity" custom field in the Apache
> Issues Tracker. Current values in it are "Any", "Unknown", "Novice",
> "Moderate", "Advanced", "Guru" and "Needs James Gosling".
>
> Had to look him up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Gosling
>
> Don
>
> On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 4:45 PM, Louis Suárez-Potts <lu...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > On 12-10-24, at 16:28 , "Dennis E. Hamilton" <de...@acm.org>
> wrote:
> >
> >> @Regina,
> >>
> >> Yes, Wizard is a reference to the level of mastery that a solver must
> >> possess, and is one of those "which one of these words does not belong"
> >> solutions.
> >>
> >> There is a well-known *logarithmic* difficulty scale that has been used
> >> over 40 years for problem difficulty. It might be worth adapting:
> >>
> >> (after unknown),
> >>
> >> 00 easy - immediately solvable by someone willing to do it
> >> 10 simple - takes minutes
> >> 20 medium, average - quarter hour
> >> 30 moderate, an evening
> >> 40 difficult, challenging, non-trivial (term project, GSoC...)
> >> 50 unsolved, deep, requires a breakthrough, research
> >> (PhD dissertation)
> >> 60 intractable (that I just made up - probably not something that
> >> is technically feasible regardless of skill, Nobel Prize,
> >> P = NP, etc.)
> >>
> >> I suspect this scale has too much at the low end and perhaps not
> >> enough steps at the high end. Perhaps there are two factors - skills
> and
> >> work factor - how long for someone of the necessary skills? Or else
> >> work factor is suggestive of the level of skill?
> >>
> >> easy - minutes (fixing a typo on a web page)
> >> simple - hour(s)
> >> moderate - days
> >> difficult, challenging - weeks
> >> hard, demanding - months
> >> stubborn - years (aka, intractable)
> >>
> >> All of these assume fluency with basic tools and facility with the
> subject matter of the issue.
> >>
> >> For example, fixing change-tracking is at least hard.
> >>
> >> - Dennis
> >>
> > One aspect that has been used and not used enough is to consider this in
> light of how a student or neophyte might approach the task and whether it
> demands the added help a mentor can offer.
> >
> > Louis
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Regina Henschel [mailto: <rb...@t-online.de>
> rb.henschel@t-online. <rb...@t-online.de>
> ]
> >> Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 13:04
> >> To: ooo-dev@incubator.apache.org
> >> Subject: Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
> >>
> >> Hi Rob,
> >>
> >> Rob Weir schrieb:
> >>> As you have probably noticed, I'm engaged in a variety of initiatives
> >>> to grow the community, bring in more volunteers, etc. One additional
> >>> piece that I think would be useful is to add a new field to Bugzilla
> >>> to indicate the difficulty level of the bug. Of course, this will
> >>> often not be known. But in some cases, we do know, and where we do
> >>> know we can indicate this.
> >>>
> >>> What this allows us to do is then have search filters that return only
> >>> open easy bugs. These are ideal for new developer volunteers on the
> >>> project who are looking for items that match their lesser familiarity
> >>> with the code. It also allows a developer to step up to more
> >>> challenging bugs over time.
> >>>
> >>> A similar approach, which they called "easy hacks", was successfully
> >>> used by LibreOffice.
> >>>
> >>> If there are no objections, I'll add a new field to Bugzilla called
> >>> "cf_difficulty_level", and which a drop down UI with the following
> >>> choices:
> >>>
> >>> UNKNOWN (default)
> >>> TRIVIAL
> >>> EASY
> >>> MODERATE
> >>> HARD
> >>> WIZARD
> >>
> >> WIZARD is used in AOO UI in the meaning of 'assistant' or step by step
> >> workflow. Therefore it might be not understood here. I need to look up
> >> other meanings in a dictionary. I would drop it. HARD as highest step is
> >> sufficient.
> >>
> >> TRIVIAL
KG01 - Perhaps we need to separate complexity from size? While this adds
yet another field, it does help triage and scope work items.
Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Posted by Kay Schenk <ka...@gmail.com>.
On 10/24/2012 02:15 PM, Donald Whytock wrote:
> Apache Camel uses an "Estimated Complexity" custom field in the Apache
> Issues Tracker. Current values in it are "Any", "Unknown", "Novice",
> "Moderate", "Advanced", "Guru" and "Needs James Gosling".
LOL! :D
>
> Had to look him up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Gosling
>
> Don
>
> On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 4:45 PM, Louis Suárez-Potts <lu...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On 12-10-24, at 16:28 , "Dennis E. Hamilton" <de...@acm.org> wrote:
>>
>>> @Regina,
>>>
>>> Yes, Wizard is a reference to the level of mastery that a solver must
>>> possess, and is one of those "which one of these words does not belong"
>>> solutions.
>>>
>>> There is a well-known *logarithmic* difficulty scale that has been used
>>> over 40 years for problem difficulty. It might be worth adapting:
>>>
>>> (after unknown),
>>>
>>> 00 easy - immediately solvable by someone willing to do it
>>> 10 simple - takes minutes
>>> 20 medium, average - quarter hour
>>> 30 moderate, an evening
>>> 40 difficult, challenging, non-trivial (term project, GSoC...)
>>> 50 unsolved, deep, requires a breakthrough, research
>>> (PhD dissertation)
>>> 60 intractable (that I just made up - probably not something that
>>> is technically feasible regardless of skill, Nobel Prize,
>>> P = NP, etc.)
>>>
>>> I suspect this scale has too much at the low end and perhaps not
>>> enough steps at the high end. Perhaps there are two factors - skills and
>>> work factor - how long for someone of the necessary skills? Or else
>>> work factor is suggestive of the level of skill?
>>>
>>> easy - minutes (fixing a typo on a web page)
>>> simple - hour(s)
>>> moderate - days
>>> difficult, challenging - weeks
>>> hard, demanding - months
>>> stubborn - years (aka, intractable)
>>>
>>> All of these assume fluency with basic tools and facility with the subject matter of the issue.
>>>
>>> For example, fixing change-tracking is at least hard.
>>>
>>> - Dennis
>>>
>> One aspect that has been used and not used enough is to consider this in light of how a student or neophyte might approach the task and whether it demands the added help a mentor can offer.
>>
>> Louis
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Regina Henschel [mailto:rb.henschel@t-online.de]
>>> Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 13:04
>>> To: ooo-dev@incubator.apache.org
>>> Subject: Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
>>>
>>> Hi Rob,
>>>
>>> Rob Weir schrieb:
>>>> As you have probably noticed, I'm engaged in a variety of initiatives
>>>> to grow the community, bring in more volunteers, etc. One additional
>>>> piece that I think would be useful is to add a new field to Bugzilla
>>>> to indicate the difficulty level of the bug. Of course, this will
>>>> often not be known. But in some cases, we do know, and where we do
>>>> know we can indicate this.
>>>>
>>>> What this allows us to do is then have search filters that return only
>>>> open easy bugs. These are ideal for new developer volunteers on the
>>>> project who are looking for items that match their lesser familiarity
>>>> with the code. It also allows a developer to step up to more
>>>> challenging bugs over time.
>>>>
>>>> A similar approach, which they called "easy hacks", was successfully
>>>> used by LibreOffice.
>>>>
>>>> If there are no objections, I'll add a new field to Bugzilla called
>>>> "cf_difficulty_level", and which a drop down UI with the following
>>>> choices:
>>>>
>>>> UNKNOWN (default)
>>>> TRIVIAL
>>>> EASY
>>>> MODERATE
>>>> HARD
>>>> WIZARD
>>>
>>> WIZARD is used in AOO UI in the meaning of 'assistant' or step by step
>>> workflow. Therefore it might be not understood here. I need to look up
>>> other meanings in a dictionary. I would drop it. HARD as highest step is
>>> sufficient.
>>>
>>> TRIVIAL sounds devaluating to me. Perhaps BEGINNER or STARTER is more
>>> neutral? Being able to start is not only a question, whether the task is
>>> easy or not from an objective point of view. Beyond that a mentor is
>>> needed. Perhaps a category MENTORED instead of TRIVIAL is useful. A
>>> senior developer would set it (and put himself in CC) if he is willing
>>> to guide a newcomer.
>>>
>>>>
>>>> (I'm certainly open to variations on the names)
>>>>
>>>> I'd then rely on other developers to help "seed" the database with
>>>> some TRIVIAL and EASY bugs, so new volunteers will have something to
>>>> work with as they familiarize themselves with the project.
>>>>
>>>> I'll wait 72 hours, etc.
>>>
>>> In general I thing it is a good idea. Using Bugzilla has the advantage,
>>> that it is not necessary to hold a Wiki page in sync with Bugzilla.
>>>
>>> Kind regards
>>> Regina
>>>
>>
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MzK
"Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never
dealt with a cat."
-- Robert Heinlein
Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Posted by Donald Whytock <dw...@gmail.com>.
Apache Camel uses an "Estimated Complexity" custom field in the Apache
Issues Tracker. Current values in it are "Any", "Unknown", "Novice",
"Moderate", "Advanced", "Guru" and "Needs James Gosling".
Had to look him up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Gosling
Don
On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 4:45 PM, Louis Suárez-Potts <lu...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 12-10-24, at 16:28 , "Dennis E. Hamilton" <de...@acm.org> wrote:
>
>> @Regina,
>>
>> Yes, Wizard is a reference to the level of mastery that a solver must
>> possess, and is one of those "which one of these words does not belong"
>> solutions.
>>
>> There is a well-known *logarithmic* difficulty scale that has been used
>> over 40 years for problem difficulty. It might be worth adapting:
>>
>> (after unknown),
>>
>> 00 easy - immediately solvable by someone willing to do it
>> 10 simple - takes minutes
>> 20 medium, average - quarter hour
>> 30 moderate, an evening
>> 40 difficult, challenging, non-trivial (term project, GSoC...)
>> 50 unsolved, deep, requires a breakthrough, research
>> (PhD dissertation)
>> 60 intractable (that I just made up - probably not something that
>> is technically feasible regardless of skill, Nobel Prize,
>> P = NP, etc.)
>>
>> I suspect this scale has too much at the low end and perhaps not
>> enough steps at the high end. Perhaps there are two factors - skills and
>> work factor - how long for someone of the necessary skills? Or else
>> work factor is suggestive of the level of skill?
>>
>> easy - minutes (fixing a typo on a web page)
>> simple - hour(s)
>> moderate - days
>> difficult, challenging - weeks
>> hard, demanding - months
>> stubborn - years (aka, intractable)
>>
>> All of these assume fluency with basic tools and facility with the subject matter of the issue.
>>
>> For example, fixing change-tracking is at least hard.
>>
>> - Dennis
>>
> One aspect that has been used and not used enough is to consider this in light of how a student or neophyte might approach the task and whether it demands the added help a mentor can offer.
>
> Louis
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Regina Henschel [mailto:rb.henschel@t-online.de]
>> Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 13:04
>> To: ooo-dev@incubator.apache.org
>> Subject: Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
>>
>> Hi Rob,
>>
>> Rob Weir schrieb:
>>> As you have probably noticed, I'm engaged in a variety of initiatives
>>> to grow the community, bring in more volunteers, etc. One additional
>>> piece that I think would be useful is to add a new field to Bugzilla
>>> to indicate the difficulty level of the bug. Of course, this will
>>> often not be known. But in some cases, we do know, and where we do
>>> know we can indicate this.
>>>
>>> What this allows us to do is then have search filters that return only
>>> open easy bugs. These are ideal for new developer volunteers on the
>>> project who are looking for items that match their lesser familiarity
>>> with the code. It also allows a developer to step up to more
>>> challenging bugs over time.
>>>
>>> A similar approach, which they called "easy hacks", was successfully
>>> used by LibreOffice.
>>>
>>> If there are no objections, I'll add a new field to Bugzilla called
>>> "cf_difficulty_level", and which a drop down UI with the following
>>> choices:
>>>
>>> UNKNOWN (default)
>>> TRIVIAL
>>> EASY
>>> MODERATE
>>> HARD
>>> WIZARD
>>
>> WIZARD is used in AOO UI in the meaning of 'assistant' or step by step
>> workflow. Therefore it might be not understood here. I need to look up
>> other meanings in a dictionary. I would drop it. HARD as highest step is
>> sufficient.
>>
>> TRIVIAL sounds devaluating to me. Perhaps BEGINNER or STARTER is more
>> neutral? Being able to start is not only a question, whether the task is
>> easy or not from an objective point of view. Beyond that a mentor is
>> needed. Perhaps a category MENTORED instead of TRIVIAL is useful. A
>> senior developer would set it (and put himself in CC) if he is willing
>> to guide a newcomer.
>>
>>>
>>> (I'm certainly open to variations on the names)
>>>
>>> I'd then rely on other developers to help "seed" the database with
>>> some TRIVIAL and EASY bugs, so new volunteers will have something to
>>> work with as they familiarize themselves with the project.
>>>
>>> I'll wait 72 hours, etc.
>>
>> In general I thing it is a good idea. Using Bugzilla has the advantage,
>> that it is not necessary to hold a Wiki page in sync with Bugzilla.
>>
>> Kind regards
>> Regina
>>
>
Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Posted by Louis Suárez-Potts <lu...@gmail.com>.
On 12-10-24, at 16:28 , "Dennis E. Hamilton" <de...@acm.org> wrote:
> @Regina,
>
> Yes, Wizard is a reference to the level of mastery that a solver must
> possess, and is one of those "which one of these words does not belong"
> solutions.
>
> There is a well-known *logarithmic* difficulty scale that has been used
> over 40 years for problem difficulty. It might be worth adapting:
>
> (after unknown),
>
> 00 easy - immediately solvable by someone willing to do it
> 10 simple - takes minutes
> 20 medium, average - quarter hour
> 30 moderate, an evening
> 40 difficult, challenging, non-trivial (term project, GSoC...)
> 50 unsolved, deep, requires a breakthrough, research
> (PhD dissertation)
> 60 intractable (that I just made up - probably not something that
> is technically feasible regardless of skill, Nobel Prize,
> P = NP, etc.)
>
> I suspect this scale has too much at the low end and perhaps not
> enough steps at the high end. Perhaps there are two factors - skills and
> work factor - how long for someone of the necessary skills? Or else
> work factor is suggestive of the level of skill?
>
> easy - minutes (fixing a typo on a web page)
> simple - hour(s)
> moderate - days
> difficult, challenging - weeks
> hard, demanding - months
> stubborn - years (aka, intractable)
>
> All of these assume fluency with basic tools and facility with the subject matter of the issue.
>
> For example, fixing change-tracking is at least hard.
>
> - Dennis
>
One aspect that has been used and not used enough is to consider this in light of how a student or neophyte might approach the task and whether it demands the added help a mentor can offer.
Louis
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Regina Henschel [mailto:rb.henschel@t-online.de]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 13:04
> To: ooo-dev@incubator.apache.org
> Subject: Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
>
> Hi Rob,
>
> Rob Weir schrieb:
>> As you have probably noticed, I'm engaged in a variety of initiatives
>> to grow the community, bring in more volunteers, etc. One additional
>> piece that I think would be useful is to add a new field to Bugzilla
>> to indicate the difficulty level of the bug. Of course, this will
>> often not be known. But in some cases, we do know, and where we do
>> know we can indicate this.
>>
>> What this allows us to do is then have search filters that return only
>> open easy bugs. These are ideal for new developer volunteers on the
>> project who are looking for items that match their lesser familiarity
>> with the code. It also allows a developer to step up to more
>> challenging bugs over time.
>>
>> A similar approach, which they called "easy hacks", was successfully
>> used by LibreOffice.
>>
>> If there are no objections, I'll add a new field to Bugzilla called
>> "cf_difficulty_level", and which a drop down UI with the following
>> choices:
>>
>> UNKNOWN (default)
>> TRIVIAL
>> EASY
>> MODERATE
>> HARD
>> WIZARD
>
> WIZARD is used in AOO UI in the meaning of 'assistant' or step by step
> workflow. Therefore it might be not understood here. I need to look up
> other meanings in a dictionary. I would drop it. HARD as highest step is
> sufficient.
>
> TRIVIAL sounds devaluating to me. Perhaps BEGINNER or STARTER is more
> neutral? Being able to start is not only a question, whether the task is
> easy or not from an objective point of view. Beyond that a mentor is
> needed. Perhaps a category MENTORED instead of TRIVIAL is useful. A
> senior developer would set it (and put himself in CC) if he is willing
> to guide a newcomer.
>
>>
>> (I'm certainly open to variations on the names)
>>
>> I'd then rely on other developers to help "seed" the database with
>> some TRIVIAL and EASY bugs, so new volunteers will have something to
>> work with as they familiarize themselves with the project.
>>
>> I'll wait 72 hours, etc.
>
> In general I thing it is a good idea. Using Bugzilla has the advantage,
> that it is not necessary to hold a Wiki page in sync with Bugzilla.
>
> Kind regards
> Regina
>
RE: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Posted by "Dennis E. Hamilton" <de...@acm.org>.
@Andre,
Absolutely.
Knuth originally published his scale for difficulty of exercises in 1968. It is in the Notes on Exercises in every edition since, including the 1997 version that I use now.
I modified it as you can see.
Also, Knuth has a way to indicate when there were special skills needed along with the level of difficulty. HM for higher-math, M for mathematically oriented. I suppose one could use a CS (computer-science) difficulty as well as Advanced CS or similar prefix. There are problems where one needs to prove that an algorithm is sound and also analysis with regard to the performance of an algorithm, when one is required.
- Dennis
Note: Although Fermat's famous theorem was proved since, Knuth has reduced it in the first 4 exercises in the book from [HM50] to [HM45] because it is still difficult to know how to do that proof even now.
-----Original Message-----
From: Andre Fischer [mailto:awf.aoo@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2012 00:48
To: ooo-dev@incubator.apache.org
Subject: Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
On 24.10.2012 22:28, Dennis E. Hamilton wrote:
> @Regina,
>
> Yes, Wizard is a reference to the level of mastery that a solver must
> possess, and is one of those "which one of these words does not belong"
> solutions.
>
> There is a well-known *logarithmic* difficulty scale that has been used
> over 40 years for problem difficulty. It might be worth adapting:
>
> (after unknown),
>
> 00 easy - immediately solvable by someone willing to do it
> 10 simple - takes minutes
> 20 medium, average - quarter hour
> 30 moderate, an evening
> 40 difficult, challenging, non-trivial (term project, GSoC...)
> 50 unsolved, deep, requires a breakthrough, research
> (PhD dissertation)
> 60 intractable (that I just made up - probably not something that
> is technically feasible regardless of skill, Nobel Prize,
> P = NP, etc.)
Is this not similar to what Knuth used (uses) in his "Art of Computer
Programming" series?
-Andre
Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Posted by Kay Schenk <ka...@gmail.com>.
On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 3:09 PM, Rob Weir <ro...@apache.org> wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 5:28 PM, Kay Schenk <ka...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 10/26/2012 07:26 AM, Rob Weir wrote:
> >> On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 3:47 AM, Andre Fischer <aw...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>> On 24.10.2012 22:28, Dennis E. Hamilton wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> @Regina,
> >>>>
> >>>> Yes, Wizard is a reference to the level of mastery that a solver
> must
> >>>> possess, and is one of those "which one of these words does not
> belong"
> >>>> solutions.
> >>>>
> >>>> There is a well-known *logarithmic* difficulty scale that has been
> used
> >>>> over 40 years for problem difficulty. It might be worth adapting:
> >>>>
> >>>> (after unknown),
> >>>>
> >>>> 00 easy - immediately solvable by someone willing to do it
> >>>> 10 simple - takes minutes
> >>>> 20 medium, average - quarter hour
> >>>> 30 moderate, an evening
> >>>> 40 difficult, challenging, non-trivial (term project, GSoC...)
> >>>> 50 unsolved, deep, requires a breakthrough, research
> >>>> (PhD dissertation)
> >>>> 60 intractable (that I just made up - probably not something that
> >>>> is technically feasible regardless of skill, Nobel Prize,
> >>>> P = NP, etc.)
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Is this not similar to what Knuth used (uses) in his "Art of Computer
> >>> Programming" series?
> >>>
> >>
> >> It reminds me of Knuth as well.
> >>
> >> In any case, I've added the new field, using the above scale, but
> >> changing "unsolved" to "research", since all open bugs are unsolved in
> >> some sense.
> >>
> >> -Rob
> >
> > Rob, Will you be updating the information/instructions on:
> >
> > http://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/QA/HowToFileIssue
> >
> > with this new field?
> >
>
> I don't think the average bug reporter has any idea whether something
> is an easy fix or not. Only a developer would know this. And
> developers don't read pages with names like 'How to file a good Issue"
> ;-)
>
> But I will document as part of the new volunteer orientation stuff I'm
> writing up. There are a number of pieces that I need to connect
> together -- the new volunteers directory, the new orientation modules,
> the BZ difficulty field, etc. Hopefully I can get this ready to
> launch soon.
>
OK, I know what you're saying...the thing is this will be a field the
reporter can access, correct? They *may* put something in or wonder what
they should use. I just think for completeness it should be included.
and thanks for all of this...
> -Rob
>
> >
> >>
> >>> -Andre
> >>>
> >
> > --
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > MzK
> >
> > "Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never
> > dealt with a cat."
> > -- Robert Heinlein
>
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MzK
"Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never
dealt with a cat."
-- Robert Heinlein
Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Posted by Andrea Pescetti <pe...@apache.org>.
jan iversen wrote:
> The process should be:
> - someone reports and describes a bug
> - someone technically qualified confirms the bug, put a comment in on where
> the bug probably sits and gives it a level.
> Or is that too much ??
It is more complex than that, because we have dozens of people who are
able to confirm and triage a bug (e.g., OpenOffice crashes on an Impress
presentation; they can verify that it happens under multiple operating
systems, detect whether this is a regression with respect to a previous
stable version, produce a minimal presentation exhibiting the crash) but
are not able to estimate where the code should be changed and what the
impact of the fix is.
So, the difficulty flag is a welcome addition, but we should probably
restrict access to it (if not by system privileges, at least by internal
policy), much like it happens for the "Release blocker" field.
Regards,
Andrea.
Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Posted by jan iversen <ja...@gmail.com>.
Did I miss something, I thought we had the status "confirmed" to be used
not by the bug reporter but by a developer or likewise, and when
"confirmed" is set, that is the time to give the bug an easy/wizard level.
The process should be:
- someone reports and describes a bug
- someone technically qualified confirms the bug, put a comment in on where
the bug probably sits and gives it a level.
Or is that too much ??
rgds
jan
On 27 October 2012 00:09, Rob Weir <ro...@apache.org> wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 5:28 PM, Kay Schenk <ka...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 10/26/2012 07:26 AM, Rob Weir wrote:
> >> On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 3:47 AM, Andre Fischer <aw...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>> On 24.10.2012 22:28, Dennis E. Hamilton wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> @Regina,
> >>>>
> >>>> Yes, Wizard is a reference to the level of mastery that a solver
> must
> >>>> possess, and is one of those "which one of these words does not
> belong"
> >>>> solutions.
> >>>>
> >>>> There is a well-known *logarithmic* difficulty scale that has been
> used
> >>>> over 40 years for problem difficulty. It might be worth adapting:
> >>>>
> >>>> (after unknown),
> >>>>
> >>>> 00 easy - immediately solvable by someone willing to do it
> >>>> 10 simple - takes minutes
> >>>> 20 medium, average - quarter hour
> >>>> 30 moderate, an evening
> >>>> 40 difficult, challenging, non-trivial (term project, GSoC...)
> >>>> 50 unsolved, deep, requires a breakthrough, research
> >>>> (PhD dissertation)
> >>>> 60 intractable (that I just made up - probably not something that
> >>>> is technically feasible regardless of skill, Nobel Prize,
> >>>> P = NP, etc.)
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Is this not similar to what Knuth used (uses) in his "Art of Computer
> >>> Programming" series?
> >>>
> >>
> >> It reminds me of Knuth as well.
> >>
> >> In any case, I've added the new field, using the above scale, but
> >> changing "unsolved" to "research", since all open bugs are unsolved in
> >> some sense.
> >>
> >> -Rob
> >
> > Rob, Will you be updating the information/instructions on:
> >
> > http://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/QA/HowToFileIssue
> >
> > with this new field?
> >
>
> I don't think the average bug reporter has any idea whether something
> is an easy fix or not. Only a developer would know this. And
> developers don't read pages with names like 'How to file a good Issue"
> ;-)
>
> But I will document as part of the new volunteer orientation stuff I'm
> writing up. There are a number of pieces that I need to connect
> together -- the new volunteers directory, the new orientation modules,
> the BZ difficulty field, etc. Hopefully I can get this ready to
> launch soon.
>
> -Rob
>
> >
> >>
> >>> -Andre
> >>>
> >
> > --
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > MzK
> >
> > "Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never
> > dealt with a cat."
> > -- Robert Heinlein
>
Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Posted by Rob Weir <ro...@apache.org>.
On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 5:28 PM, Kay Schenk <ka...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 10/26/2012 07:26 AM, Rob Weir wrote:
>> On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 3:47 AM, Andre Fischer <aw...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On 24.10.2012 22:28, Dennis E. Hamilton wrote:
>>>>
>>>> @Regina,
>>>>
>>>> Yes, Wizard is a reference to the level of mastery that a solver must
>>>> possess, and is one of those "which one of these words does not belong"
>>>> solutions.
>>>>
>>>> There is a well-known *logarithmic* difficulty scale that has been used
>>>> over 40 years for problem difficulty. It might be worth adapting:
>>>>
>>>> (after unknown),
>>>>
>>>> 00 easy - immediately solvable by someone willing to do it
>>>> 10 simple - takes minutes
>>>> 20 medium, average - quarter hour
>>>> 30 moderate, an evening
>>>> 40 difficult, challenging, non-trivial (term project, GSoC...)
>>>> 50 unsolved, deep, requires a breakthrough, research
>>>> (PhD dissertation)
>>>> 60 intractable (that I just made up - probably not something that
>>>> is technically feasible regardless of skill, Nobel Prize,
>>>> P = NP, etc.)
>>>
>>>
>>> Is this not similar to what Knuth used (uses) in his "Art of Computer
>>> Programming" series?
>>>
>>
>> It reminds me of Knuth as well.
>>
>> In any case, I've added the new field, using the above scale, but
>> changing "unsolved" to "research", since all open bugs are unsolved in
>> some sense.
>>
>> -Rob
>
> Rob, Will you be updating the information/instructions on:
>
> http://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/QA/HowToFileIssue
>
> with this new field?
>
I don't think the average bug reporter has any idea whether something
is an easy fix or not. Only a developer would know this. And
developers don't read pages with names like 'How to file a good Issue"
;-)
But I will document as part of the new volunteer orientation stuff I'm
writing up. There are a number of pieces that I need to connect
together -- the new volunteers directory, the new orientation modules,
the BZ difficulty field, etc. Hopefully I can get this ready to
launch soon.
-Rob
>
>>
>>> -Andre
>>>
>
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> MzK
>
> "Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never
> dealt with a cat."
> -- Robert Heinlein
Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Posted by Kay Schenk <ka...@gmail.com>.
On 10/26/2012 07:26 AM, Rob Weir wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 3:47 AM, Andre Fischer <aw...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 24.10.2012 22:28, Dennis E. Hamilton wrote:
>>>
>>> @Regina,
>>>
>>> Yes, Wizard is a reference to the level of mastery that a solver must
>>> possess, and is one of those "which one of these words does not belong"
>>> solutions.
>>>
>>> There is a well-known *logarithmic* difficulty scale that has been used
>>> over 40 years for problem difficulty. It might be worth adapting:
>>>
>>> (after unknown),
>>>
>>> 00 easy - immediately solvable by someone willing to do it
>>> 10 simple - takes minutes
>>> 20 medium, average - quarter hour
>>> 30 moderate, an evening
>>> 40 difficult, challenging, non-trivial (term project, GSoC...)
>>> 50 unsolved, deep, requires a breakthrough, research
>>> (PhD dissertation)
>>> 60 intractable (that I just made up - probably not something that
>>> is technically feasible regardless of skill, Nobel Prize,
>>> P = NP, etc.)
>>
>>
>> Is this not similar to what Knuth used (uses) in his "Art of Computer
>> Programming" series?
>>
>
> It reminds me of Knuth as well.
>
> In any case, I've added the new field, using the above scale, but
> changing "unsolved" to "research", since all open bugs are unsolved in
> some sense.
>
> -Rob
Rob, Will you be updating the information/instructions on:
http://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/QA/HowToFileIssue
with this new field?
>
>> -Andre
>>
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MzK
"Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never
dealt with a cat."
-- Robert Heinlein
Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Posted by Rob Weir <ro...@apache.org>.
On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 3:47 AM, Andre Fischer <aw...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 24.10.2012 22:28, Dennis E. Hamilton wrote:
>>
>> @Regina,
>>
>> Yes, Wizard is a reference to the level of mastery that a solver must
>> possess, and is one of those "which one of these words does not belong"
>> solutions.
>>
>> There is a well-known *logarithmic* difficulty scale that has been used
>> over 40 years for problem difficulty. It might be worth adapting:
>>
>> (after unknown),
>>
>> 00 easy - immediately solvable by someone willing to do it
>> 10 simple - takes minutes
>> 20 medium, average - quarter hour
>> 30 moderate, an evening
>> 40 difficult, challenging, non-trivial (term project, GSoC...)
>> 50 unsolved, deep, requires a breakthrough, research
>> (PhD dissertation)
>> 60 intractable (that I just made up - probably not something that
>> is technically feasible regardless of skill, Nobel Prize,
>> P = NP, etc.)
>
>
> Is this not similar to what Knuth used (uses) in his "Art of Computer
> Programming" series?
>
It reminds me of Knuth as well.
In any case, I've added the new field, using the above scale, but
changing "unsolved" to "research", since all open bugs are unsolved in
some sense.
-Rob
> -Andre
>
Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Posted by Andre Fischer <aw...@gmail.com>.
On 24.10.2012 22:28, Dennis E. Hamilton wrote:
> @Regina,
>
> Yes, Wizard is a reference to the level of mastery that a solver must
> possess, and is one of those "which one of these words does not belong"
> solutions.
>
> There is a well-known *logarithmic* difficulty scale that has been used
> over 40 years for problem difficulty. It might be worth adapting:
>
> (after unknown),
>
> 00 easy - immediately solvable by someone willing to do it
> 10 simple - takes minutes
> 20 medium, average - quarter hour
> 30 moderate, an evening
> 40 difficult, challenging, non-trivial (term project, GSoC...)
> 50 unsolved, deep, requires a breakthrough, research
> (PhD dissertation)
> 60 intractable (that I just made up - probably not something that
> is technically feasible regardless of skill, Nobel Prize,
> P = NP, etc.)
Is this not similar to what Knuth used (uses) in his "Art of Computer
Programming" series?
-Andre
RE: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Posted by "Dennis E. Hamilton" <de...@acm.org>.
@Regina,
Yes, Wizard is a reference to the level of mastery that a solver must
possess, and is one of those "which one of these words does not belong"
solutions.
There is a well-known *logarithmic* difficulty scale that has been used
over 40 years for problem difficulty. It might be worth adapting:
(after unknown),
00 easy - immediately solvable by someone willing to do it
10 simple - takes minutes
20 medium, average - quarter hour
30 moderate, an evening
40 difficult, challenging, non-trivial (term project, GSoC...)
50 unsolved, deep, requires a breakthrough, research
(PhD dissertation)
60 intractable (that I just made up - probably not something that
is technically feasible regardless of skill, Nobel Prize,
P = NP, etc.)
I suspect this scale has too much at the low end and perhaps not
enough steps at the high end. Perhaps there are two factors - skills and
work factor - how long for someone of the necessary skills? Or else
work factor is suggestive of the level of skill?
easy - minutes (fixing a typo on a web page)
simple - hour(s)
moderate - days
difficult, challenging - weeks
hard, demanding - months
stubborn - years (aka, intractable)
All of these assume fluency with basic tools and facility with the subject matter of the issue.
For example, fixing change-tracking is at least hard.
- Dennis
-----Original Message-----
From: Regina Henschel [mailto:rb.henschel@t-online.de]
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 13:04
To: ooo-dev@incubator.apache.org
Subject: Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Hi Rob,
Rob Weir schrieb:
> As you have probably noticed, I'm engaged in a variety of initiatives
> to grow the community, bring in more volunteers, etc. One additional
> piece that I think would be useful is to add a new field to Bugzilla
> to indicate the difficulty level of the bug. Of course, this will
> often not be known. But in some cases, we do know, and where we do
> know we can indicate this.
>
> What this allows us to do is then have search filters that return only
> open easy bugs. These are ideal for new developer volunteers on the
> project who are looking for items that match their lesser familiarity
> with the code. It also allows a developer to step up to more
> challenging bugs over time.
>
> A similar approach, which they called "easy hacks", was successfully
> used by LibreOffice.
>
> If there are no objections, I'll add a new field to Bugzilla called
> "cf_difficulty_level", and which a drop down UI with the following
> choices:
>
> UNKNOWN (default)
> TRIVIAL
> EASY
> MODERATE
> HARD
> WIZARD
WIZARD is used in AOO UI in the meaning of 'assistant' or step by step
workflow. Therefore it might be not understood here. I need to look up
other meanings in a dictionary. I would drop it. HARD as highest step is
sufficient.
TRIVIAL sounds devaluating to me. Perhaps BEGINNER or STARTER is more
neutral? Being able to start is not only a question, whether the task is
easy or not from an objective point of view. Beyond that a mentor is
needed. Perhaps a category MENTORED instead of TRIVIAL is useful. A
senior developer would set it (and put himself in CC) if he is willing
to guide a newcomer.
>
> (I'm certainly open to variations on the names)
>
> I'd then rely on other developers to help "seed" the database with
> some TRIVIAL and EASY bugs, so new volunteers will have something to
> work with as they familiarize themselves with the project.
>
> I'll wait 72 hours, etc.
In general I thing it is a good idea. Using Bugzilla has the advantage,
that it is not necessary to hold a Wiki page in sync with Bugzilla.
Kind regards
Regina
Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Posted by Regina Henschel <rb...@t-online.de>.
Hi Rob,
Rob Weir schrieb:
> As you have probably noticed, I'm engaged in a variety of initiatives
> to grow the community, bring in more volunteers, etc. One additional
> piece that I think would be useful is to add a new field to Bugzilla
> to indicate the difficulty level of the bug. Of course, this will
> often not be known. But in some cases, we do know, and where we do
> know we can indicate this.
>
> What this allows us to do is then have search filters that return only
> open easy bugs. These are ideal for new developer volunteers on the
> project who are looking for items that match their lesser familiarity
> with the code. It also allows a developer to step up to more
> challenging bugs over time.
>
> A similar approach, which they called "easy hacks", was successfully
> used by LibreOffice.
>
> If there are no objections, I'll add a new field to Bugzilla called
> "cf_difficulty_level", and which a drop down UI with the following
> choices:
>
> UNKNOWN (default)
> TRIVIAL
> EASY
> MODERATE
> HARD
> WIZARD
WIZARD is used in AOO UI in the meaning of 'assistant' or step by step
workflow. Therefore it might be not understood here. I need to look up
other meanings in a dictionary. I would drop it. HARD as highest step is
sufficient.
TRIVIAL sounds devaluating to me. Perhaps BEGINNER or STARTER is more
neutral? Being able to start is not only a question, whether the task is
easy or not from an objective point of view. Beyond that a mentor is
needed. Perhaps a category MENTORED instead of TRIVIAL is useful. A
senior developer would set it (and put himself in CC) if he is willing
to guide a newcomer.
>
> (I'm certainly open to variations on the names)
>
> I'd then rely on other developers to help "seed" the database with
> some TRIVIAL and EASY bugs, so new volunteers will have something to
> work with as they familiarize themselves with the project.
>
> I'll wait 72 hours, etc.
In general I thing it is a good idea. Using Bugzilla has the advantage,
that it is not necessary to hold a Wiki page in sync with Bugzilla.
Kind regards
Regina
Re: [PROPOSAL] "difficulty" field for Bugzilla
Posted by "Marcus (OOo)" <ma...@wtnet.de>.
Am 10/24/2012 09:08 PM, schrieb Rob Weir:
> As you have probably noticed, I'm engaged in a variety of initiatives
> to grow the community, bring in more volunteers, etc. One additional
> piece that I think would be useful is to add a new field to Bugzilla
> to indicate the difficulty level of the bug. Of course, this will
> often not be known. But in some cases, we do know, and where we do
> know we can indicate this.
>
> What this allows us to do is then have search filters that return only
> open easy bugs. These are ideal for new developer volunteers on the
> project who are looking for items that match their lesser familiarity
> with the code. It also allows a developer to step up to more
> challenging bugs over time.
>
> A similar approach, which they called "easy hacks", was successfully
> used by LibreOffice.
>
> If there are no objections, I'll add a new field to Bugzilla called
> "cf_difficulty_level", and which a drop down UI with the following
> choices:
>
> UNKNOWN (default)
> TRIVIAL
> EASY
> MODERATE
> HARD
> WIZARD
>
> (I'm certainly open to variations on the names)
>
> I'd then rely on other developers to help "seed" the database with
> some TRIVIAL and EASY bugs, so new volunteers will have something to
> work with as they familiarize themselves with the project.
>
> I'll wait 72 hours, etc.
Even if it was not really 3 days ;-) and I'm a bit late, I just wanted
to tell that this seems good idea to attract more new volunteers to get
an entry point into our project.
Marcus