[Ifeffit] Minor bugs in the new versions

[Scott Calvin]

At 02:57 PM 4/28/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>1. Lack of complaints doesn't mean that he problem is rare. >

Mark brings up an interesting issue. I'd kind of like to get the sense of
the community on this.

Given that, unlike Ifeffit itself, Artemis and Athena are beta versions (a
"0" starts the version number), all of us who use that software are beta
testers. Thus part of our responsibilities, in exchange for getting to use
really nifty and cutting-edge software, is to report bugs to Bruce.

Unfortunately, reporting bugs in a responsible way is somewhat
time-consuming (not nearly as time-consuming as writing the software in the
first place, of course!). For example, a really minor bug which has already
been discussed is the one that occasionally makes the right panel of Athena
get wide. It's not something that bothers me, but it's clearly a bug. I
don't feel like I'm being helpful, though, if I report to Bruce that
something like this "occasionally" happens without being able to make it
happen reproducibly. So I never reported it. If, on the other hand, some
bug is either making it harder for me to do what I want to do, or it seems
likely to cause some other unsuspecting user grief, or I can see exactly
under what circumstances it occurs, I generally investigate and make a bug
report.

So my question is what perspective everyone (and especially Bruce) has on
the trade-off between tracking down every bug so as to give Bruce full
reports and spending the time actually using this great software for analysis.

--Scott Calvin
Sarah Lawrence College