Bugs and features

[qwerty]

This post is triggered by the discussion about the V9 beta.

So I just wrapped up my activities of the last year.

23 Bugs reported
6 of them did not receive a reference id at all
2 were lost (as I now noticed) as I only got that "Thank you" reply

12 Features requested
2 did not get a reference id
2 were lost

What I can say is that Sparx actually reacts (on most) reports quite fast. Also the supporters are competent in what the say. This is the positive side.

On the other hand it seems that only very few of the discussion finally reaches implementation state. I haven't verified yet how many bug/feature requests have been implemented but from a rough guess is definitely(!!) below 10%. It was quite cumbersome to sort out the reports according to mails and I actually do not have direct feedback to what has happened to single reports. (Well, I could ask using the reference id but that's not only cumbersome for me but especially for the Sparx supporters.)

Additionally the lost requests (4 out of 55 which is almost 10%!!!) give me a very bad feeling of what is happening behind the scenes. The bad thing is, that I reported bugs (and feature requests) with a description but I only get that simple "Thank you". I do not remember the details and I have no chance to dig into the subjects. If simply the "Thank you" would echo the complete details I would have a chance to inquire at a later time but that way...


q.

[edit:] further investigation shows for above bug reports
5 are being investigated (means I have to poll)
5 have been logged for bug fixing (ditto)
1 is not reproducible
3 have been fixed (at least with V9)

for the features
3 still under invetigation
2 logged for bug fixing
3 fixed

[edit2:] I realized that in a few cases I sent a "the error was in front of the keyboard" message right after the bug submission. So some of the un-replied reports might be counted on that. However, definitely not all of them and at least the traceability is shown to be "improvable".

[fwoolz]

This is why I and others have repeatedly asked Sparx to implement an on-line bug tracking system (e.g. Bugzilla) so that users (and Sparx) can see what needs to be fixed and the progress in making those fixes. Even Microsoft does this.

[Geert Bellekens]

I agree that a publicly available bug/feature list would make a lot of users a lot happier.
I'm even sure the hard working Sparx support team would benefit from this as it might lead to less duplicate bug/feature reports

Geert

[qwerty]

I just dug in the forum history:

2003-05-27 caller in the dessert
2004-01-20 A short discussion
2005-11-27 and another one
2006-04-09 once again but a few more replies
2006-09-24 another desperate call
2008-06-02 farewell
2009-10-29 another desperate call
2010-05-05 a bit more support and no reply at all

A long history of nearly eight years and no response from any Sparxian.

q.