How to determine bug severity level?

[Ken Ray]

On Thu, 21 Jun 2007 06:40:31 -0700, Joe Lewis Wilkins wrote:

> Michael,
> 
> IMO your are 100% on target. Frankly, I'm appalled at the scope and 
> degree of bugginess there appears to be in the current Rev release. 

Really? I'm sorry, Joe, I don't see that at all. Rev 2.8.1 has been the 
most stable release for me in a long time, and I have yet to run into 
anything that has caused my apps to crash or lose data. And the bug 
that Michael posted has been in the product for a long time apparently 
(I just tested it in 2.1.2), but since it was never reported to 
Bugzilla, no one has encountered it until now. 

I'm not going to throw back the "there's bugs in every piece of 
software" hyperbole since it's so well-known it's not worth the effort. 

> Were I working with the types of apps I used to 
> produce with HC, and foresaw inaccurate or lost data, I'd just throw 
> up my hands and withdraw from the game. 

I would too, if there was no workaround to get the data accurate again. 
But there are so few actual bugs that don't have workarounds that 
there's no reason to do that. I'm not saying that "because there are 
workarounds, the bug(s) shouldn't be fixed" (obviously), but what I am 
saying is that it's the equivalent of sitting on a chair with one leg 
that's a little too short: you can live with it, you can workaround it 
with a matchbook cover, or you can say "I'm not going to sit on that 
chair until someone fixes it". I prefer the workaround. (Now if it only 
had 1 leg, that's another matter entirely... ;-)

> Since I haven't personally experienced all of the "reported" problems 
> mentioned, I can still be somewhat reserved in my criticism; but not 
> for long. 

Also keep in mind that everybody's setup is different - one person may 
encounter a bug that others don't (in fact just recently posts like 
that have been made). It's good to be aware of what other people are 
encountering; but until it happens to you, it doesn't become a concrete 
impediment (IMHO).

> AFAIC, even work-arounds are only acceptable on a VERY 
> temporary basis. 

Agreed. And reporting to Bugzilla and setting appropriate severity 
levels will help in making workarounds a temporary situation. There's 
definitely issues that RunRev has to deal with in relation to Bugzilla 
(we *all* know that), but if the bugs don't get posted there, there 
likely never to be addressed; whereas if they *are* in Bugzilla, they 
are more likely to be addressed. So it's worth the effort to post them 
(IMHO).

Just my 2 cents,

Ken Ray
Sons of Thunder Software, Inc.
Email: kray at sonsothunder.com
Web Site: http://www.sonsothunder.com/