[comp.lang.c] tracking problems

uucigj@swbatl.sbc.com (Greg Jensen - UCI - 5-3531) (05/01/91)

I would like to find out if there are any problem reporting/tracking systems
available for Unix that is similar to the Info Family product (thats a 
IBM VSAM mainframe product).  Our testers come from the mainframe environment
and now that they are on Unix they would like to use a tool that at least
gives them similar type capabilites.  At first I thought of SCCS or some
specialization of SCCS, but after explaining it to the testers I found out it
was not what they were looking for.  The least aspect that they want is 
problem tracking and reporting.  While they are testing, they want to be able
enter the problem online and notify the coordinator on the developers side.
From there the coordinator will farm it out to a specified developer who will
do the work.  At any point along the problem resolution the testors would like
to be able to query that reported instance of a problem to see who has worked 
on it, what work has been done and possibly be able to cross reference that
instance with some other instance of a problem (new or old).  One other aspect
that they say would be nice is to be able to cross reference problems across
projects, and another is the use of mail or some other means of notification
when critical stages of problem resolution are reached.  These are just a few
things that is being required and I thought I would query the net to see what
might have been done or what products are used.  We could probably put 
something together that would meet their requirements, but we do not have the 
time, so we would be interested in anything in the public domain or commercial.


      Gregg Jensen
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brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) (05/02/91)

In article <blah> somebody writes:
> I would like to find out if there are any problem reporting/tracking systems
> available for Unix that is similar to the Info Family product (thats a 
> IBM VSAM mainframe product).
  [ etc., lots of stuff having nothing to do with C ]

Question: I know this article is inappropriate for comp.lang.c. But how
do I explain this to someone else? Is there some reasonably well-defined
quality of an article that always implies inappropriateness?

When someone asks what he's doing wrong with popen("who","r"), the
answer might be that he's mismanipulating some FILE pointers, or it
might be that he's misusing the output of the ``who'' command. How do
you explain that his question was appropriate for comp.lang.c in the
first case and comp.unix.questions in the second? Is the appropriate
newsgroup a function of the question or of the answer? In either case,
what's the function?

Followups by e-mail. Yes, I'm asking this seriously. I simply can't
figure out a good way to explain this ``appropriateness'' concept to
people. Please *don't* send me e-mail if you don't have constructive
suggestions.

---Dan

enag@ifi.uio.no (Erik Naggum) (05/04/91)

In comp.lang.c article <9169:May205:59:1791@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>,
brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) writes:

   In article <blah> somebody writes:
     [ lots of stuff having nothing to do with C ]

   Question: I know this article is inappropriate for comp.lang.c. But how
   do I explain this to someone else? Is there some reasonably well-defined
   quality of an article that always implies inappropriateness?

   When someone asks what he's doing wrong with popen("who","r"), the
   answer might be that he's mismanipulating some FILE pointers, or it
   might be that he's misusing the output of the ``who'' command. How do
   you explain that his question was appropriate for comp.lang.c in the
   first case and comp.unix.questions in the second? Is the appropriate
   newsgroup a function of the question or of the answer? In either case,
   what's the function?

   Followups by e-mail. Yes, I'm asking this seriously. I simply can't
   figure out a good way to explain this ``appropriateness'' concept to
   people. Please *don't* send me e-mail if you don't have constructive
   suggestions.

By implication of your last sentence, I post.  The best way to explain
the appropriateness concept is by example.  Don't follow up to things
which are not appropriate to a newsgroup in that newsgroup, and the
stupid and ill-behaved posters may or may not go away.  Your note, for
instance, is not appropriate to comp.lang.c.  As a result, I simply
can't figure out how you think you could explain something to somebody
when you don't even have a clue to it yourself.

Note followup-to: alt.flame

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