Getting Help With Bugs (was: Re: AW: 0.9.17 and other issues)

[Robert Shearman]

Roland Kaeser wrote:

> <snip silly messages going back and forth about opensource>


The following is not specific for you, but something I hope can help 
others out that are in your situation:

There are a number of things you can do to make your bugs more likely to 
be fixed by volunteer developers:
1 File a bug!
2. Describe the bug accurately. If it is not completely obvious, 
describe what the program should be doing and what actually happens.
3. Only describe one bug per bugzilla entry, unless you think they are 
related. Doing otherwise will probably cause your second problem to be 
ignored.
4. Provide debug messages printed when reproducing the bug.
5. Use a standard Wine configuration. This includes not mixing native 
and builtin DCOM dlls and not using WineTools. In fact, try to use as 
many builtin DLLs as possible.
6. Try to reproduce the bug in a freely downloadable version of the 
application (for example, a demo or trial version) and provide a link in 
the bug. (Note that having to fill in a form with details to download a 
program puts me off trying to fix a bug, but others' opinions may be 
different.)
7. If you suspect the bug is in a certain component due an error message 
in a dialog box or on the console and you know which debug channel it 
corresponds to then attach a log of that debug channel to the bug.
8. Be repsonsive to developers asking for you to retest, try different 
dlls and create debug logs. You can be pro-active, but be careful to not 
be annoying. Deriding Wine or Wine developers is likely to be seen as 
annoying and your bug will be ignored. Testing the bug on each release 
of wine (or on a less regular basis) and reporting its status is 
welcomed and will show that you care about the bug being fixed and that 
you will be responsive if a developer investigates the bug further.

-- 
Rob Shearman