Re: Bug#242419: general: need for a webbased BTS
On Wed, 07 Apr 2004, Riku Voipio wrote:
> I really don't know what to say, if you really believe a terminal
> based UI is as simple and familiar to newbies as web based one.
There is nothing magical about a character based UI that makes it
automatically more difficult to use than a web based UI. People's
preconceptions might play a role, but even a web based interface akin
to reportbug is going to be largely text based.
> Some food of thought where a web interface would help:
>
> 1) bugs in nonnetworked/email blocked installations
These should be trivially fileable using the user's pre-existing email
setup, or the built in smtp setup in reportbug.
Reportbug can even write out the report to a file so you can send it's
report to submit@b.d.o... [Perhaps it should offer to write this out
by default if it's in the offline mode? dunno.]
> 2) bugs about uninstallable/unbooting systems
See above.
> 3) trying to spot the duplicate before filing a bug against a
> package with hundreds of bugs. Yeah, you can view the bugs with
> reportbug, but it as about as comfortable as using dselect.
So please, use it, contemplate it, and think of ways to make the
existing interface better and file wishlist bugs against reportbug.
Talking in -devel is great, but it doesn't do anything to solve the
(perceived) problem.
> And as a bonus, reportbug could use HTTP to send bugs, and it would
> not need to ask all the mail setup questions at all. Except for
> reply-to address, ofcourse.
I don't see how this is any different from using reportbug's internal
SMTP setup which can send mail directly to master.debian.org. You just
need to enter your name and your email address, answer "no" for the
MTA question, and press return when it asks you for an SMTP host.
The method you are sugesting still has all of the existing problems
with network connectivity anyway.
Don Armstrong
--
What I can't stand is the feeling that my brain is leaving me for
someone more interesting.
http://www.donarmstrong.com
http://rzlab.ucr.edu
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