AN IMPORTANT MESSEGE FROM SYMBOLICS SOFTWARE SUPPORT

[Dan Aronson <aronson@ARISIA.XEROX.COM>]

   Date: Mon, 30 Oct 89 13:39 PST
   From: rsl@max-fleischer.ila-sf.dialnet.symbolics.com (Richard Lamson)

       Date: 30 Oct 89 20:42:51 GMT
       From: rshu@ads.com (Richard Shu)

       BTW, aside from providing feedback to the originator of the bug
       report, can we consider mechanisms to provide information to 
       other members of the Symbolics community?  Here is a strawman
       proposal for such a mechanism.

   The last company I dealt with on this kind of issue had a database
   called the trouble-report database which was accessible essentially via
   the network.  The database contained a numbered report, what state the
   report was in ("new", "read by TR manager", "sent to developer",
   "rejected", etc.), the type ("bug report" vs. "suggestion", etc.), and
   any commentary entered by the TR manager, developer(s), etc.  A fix was
   sometimes incorporated into the report (although not usually, since it
   often required recompiling parts of the system); a work-around would be
   in there somewhere when possible.  Any interested user with appropriate
   access control bits set could read the database.

   It should be possible to build such a database-reading server which
   would use any byte-stream connection and allow users to peruse the
   database.  Access control could be implemented using passwords, so
   people on Dialnet would have access.  This would reduce Symbolics' costs
   in the medium-to-long term, since multiple bug reports would often not
   be submitted concerning the same bug, and the Symbolics people would be
   able to use the same database to filter bug reports as well.

Could you supply anymore info, or a pointer to the people currently involved.

--Dan