[Libreoffice] EasyHack: Improved bug filing form / flow

[Samuel Atkins]

Hi Christoph,

Sorry about taking a while to reply. I'm dangerously close to actually 
having a life, hence disruption. ;-)

On 28/03/2011 9:49 PM, Christoph Noack wrote:
> Hi Sam!
>
> That already looks *amazing* ... especially the thoughtful textual
> descriptions - thanks for your hard work.
>
> Nevertheless, I played a bit with the site and came up with some stuff -
> mostly minor things or questions. And - as always - skip those items
> that might have been mis-interpreted on my side. Or just tell me (even
> better)...
>
> General
>        * If people (like me) look through some of the options, then most
>          of the stuff gets saved, although options are not shown. I don't
>          know whether this may be a problem, but maybe options that
>          exclude each other are saved at the end.
Yeah, I need to find a way of resetting things. Doable, just probably 
fiddly.
>        * I'm not sure whether I missed it, but might it be helpful to ask
>          (also for the Search) for the version of LibreOffice? Or is this
>          page opened via a link from LibO that automatically pre-selects
>          the required version?
I'd completely forgotten about versions! I'll add a question for it, and 
a help text.
> Section "Search for Similar Bugs": What shall people do who find similar
> looking bugs? Something like "If yes, then it is likely that we are
> already working on resolving it." To me, it looks more promising ;-)
Sure! And thanks. :-)
> Section "File a New Bug"
>
>        * Chatroom: How about adding this to the top of the page? Then all
>          "help" related stuff is grouped - and the chat might already be
>          helpful for searching for bugs.
Good idea.
>        * LibreOffice crashes
>                * When does LibreOffice crash?: Here, it seems that you
>                  place all the options directly below the currently
>                  selected radio button. In other place, you place the new
>                  content below the group of radio buttons. The latter one
>                  seems the preferred version, since it avoids jumping of
>                  the page, and causing large gaps between the single
>                  radio buttons.
I hadn't done that consciously, but yeah, I can see how having new 
things after would be clearer. :-)
>                * Which operating system have you found the crash on?:
>                        * How about Windows -->  Microsoft Windows, Mac OS
>                          X -->  Apple Mac OS X
Sure. Thanks for pointing that out. :-)
>                        * Linux:
>                                * Type in "Please follow th*g*ese
>                                  instructions"
Typo (and the other one later): oops! I should use a text editor with a 
spell checker.
>                                * Is the backtrack mandatory? If not, it
>                                  would be great if we could mention
>                                  it ... otherwise it might.
Hmmm. I'm not sure. It could be too complicated a thing to force people 
to do.
>                        * Another potential OS
>                                * Sorry, I don't get the meaning of
>                                  "potential" in this case.
>                                * Might it be helpful to ask for the "tag
>                                  line" in the about box? I'm not sure
>                                  whether it already contains the OS name,
>                                  but we talked about it some time ago.
Sorry, this section was meant to be a placeholder for other OS sections, 
I didn't make that clear enough. From the download page it seems that LO 
is only available on Windows, Mac and Linux, but I expect there are 
probably others (and will be in the future). Then again, for now it 
would probably be better to have a box to enter the name of a different OS.
The OS doesn't appear in 'about' in 3.3.2, which is what I'm running, so 
I can't say whether it's in yet! But it sounds useful.
>                * Which operating system have you found the crash on?
>                        * Placeholder: If an error message ...: A
>                          question, do you intend to ask for a screenshot
>                          to e.g. get the complete error message? To me,
>                          it seems that some people might be thankful for
>                          typing in the message (but again, it is likely
>                          that people type in strange / shortened /
>                          whatever stuff).
Yeah, getting a screenshot of the error message would be ideal, though a 
text box as well would be useful.
>        * My document looks wrong when I load it
>                * Are you sure you have the fonts installed?: A less
>                  platform specific way might be to refer to e.g. the
>                  "Format - Characters" dialog. If a selected font is not
>                  installed, then a corresponding message gets shown above
>                  the font preview. (Just remembered that we have
>                  something like that ...)
Ah, ok! That sounds very helpful. I'll have to have a look at that.
>        * LibreOffice is hard to use: Well, also a hard question ... I'll
>          think a bit what kind of question we need here. At the moment, I
>          think
>
> Finally: How to finally submit the bug? ;-) Okay, still unanswered
> questions ...
Yeah, it's tricky. I'm sure something will get worked-out eventually!
> Box "Make the file as small as possible"
>        * Typo in "usually this is th*w* application"
>        * Just to be sure ... would it be helpful to tell people to remove
>          both "confidential and personal" information?
Sure, extra clarity can't hurt.
> Okay, that's what I've found so far ...
Thanks! It's always appreciated. :-) (Well, unless I'm having a 
particularly bad day!)
> Am Montag, den 28.03.2011, 19:58 +0100 schrieb Samuel Atkins:
>> Hi guys,
>>
>> Sorry if I went a bit quiet about this! I'm still working on it. Current
>> version as always is at:
>> http://atkinslg.dyndns.org:4080/stuff/submitbug.html
>>
>> Currently, the help text stuff appears in a box on the right when the
>> user clicks on a link. I'm not currently loading it from the wiki or
>> anything, though I still think that might be a better idea, to make it
>> easier for people to update/correct it. It'd be better for translation
>> too, I would imagine.
> True, but the good thing is - at least to me - people can quickly check
> without leaving the page.
Yeah, it's certainly better. I'll see if I can get it to load from the 
wiki onto the page, if I get time - potentially the best of both worlds. :-)
> I CCed Ivan who might add his thoughts here ... and there. I know that
> he's pretty busy at the moment (changes in his private life), but maybe
> he'll be able to spend some minutes.

> Hoping for Ivan ;-) If he lacks the time, then we'll CC design / website
> list. Personally, I fear that I'll be unable to help here, since my
> private life changes as well - spending time for LibO gets more
> difficult :-)
It's terrible how life gets in the way of things, isn't it! ;-)

Thanks,

~ Sam