Re: AN IMPORTANT MESSEGE FROM SYMBOLICS SOFTWARE SUPPORT

[Richard Lamson <rsl%max-fleischer.ila-sf.dialnet.symbolics.com@RELAY.CS.NET>]

    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.