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>6.3. Description Flags and Tracking Bugs</A
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CLASS="LITERALLAYOUT"
>Since I last posted on this issue, we now have "keywords" that solve<br>
many of the issues of description and status whiteboard keywords. We<br>
have seen a migration towards keywords, but there is still further to<br>
go.<br>
<br>
Description ( + Status Whiteboard ) Keywords<br>
--------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
Some description keywords remain. I'd like to hear what reasons, other<br>
than time, there are for these staying as they are. I'm suspecting many<br>
are not really being used. Hopefully we can totally remove these<br>
eventually.<br>
<br>
Tracking Bugs<br>
-------------<br>
<br>
When I suggested keywords, I did so to get rid of tracking bugs too,<br>
though we've had less success on that front.<br>
<br>
There are many disadvantages to tracking bugs.<br>
<br>
- They can pollute bugs counts, and you must make sure you exclude<br>
them. I believe the meta keyword might be used for this purpose.<br>
- They have an assignee but there is nothing to fix, and that person can<br>
get whined at by Bugzilla.<br>
- It would be better to craft your own "dependency tree" rather than<br>
rely on a fixed hierachy in the bug system.<br>
- In creating a nice little hierachy, many bugs duplicate information<br>
that should be available in other ways, eg<br>
"http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12833" which is<br>
about beta 1 networking issues. These could fall behind the actual<br>
data. What tracking bugs are good for, ad hoc lists, is what keywords<br>
are better for.<br>
- An automatically generated dependency structure between one "tracking<br>
bug" and another would be better than a manual one, since it gives exact<br>
rather than manually set up classifications.<br>
<br>
Probably the only feature preventing tracking bugs being replaced is the<br>
dependency tree. The quintessential tracking bug seems to be bug #7229<br>
"chofmann's watch list", which probably has about a couple of hundred<br>
bugs at various levels, which allows a nice visualisation.<br>
<br>
Before keywords can replace tracking bugs better visualisation is going<br>
to be required. General summary reports and dependency forests of a bug<br>
list ("http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12992") could both<br>
help, but neither solves the problem totally. Perhaps keywords within<br>
keywords would help here. In any case, I'm still thinking about this<br>
one.<br>
<br>
Some tracking bugs could definitely be turned into keywords immediately<br>
though, and I'll point the finger at<br>
"http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7954" here since that's<br>
what came to mind first.</P
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