Re: bug report being ignored

[echancrure@gmail.com]

On Feb 25, 10:33 pm, Samuel Tardieu <s...@rfc1149.net> wrote:
> >>>>> "Chris" == echancrure  <echancr...@gmail.com> writes:
>
> Chris> Hi all, I don't want to be flippant or anything (I am just
> Chris> ignorant of the gcc/ gnat process/effort involved), but I
> Chris> filled a bug report for gnat on bugzilla #35050 (
> Chris>http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=35050) on the
> Chris> first of February and so far it has remained unconfirmed, never
> Chris> mind looked into in view to be fixed.
>
> Chris> It's not always easy to ask question like this without
> Chris> offending gcc/ gnat people who are doing a tremendous job.
>
> Chris> It is an annoying bug for me as it has an impact on gnatxref
> Chris> that I use a lot.
>
> Chris> Is there anything that I can do to try to get that bug fixed???
> Chris> Am I doing something wrong?
>
> As far as I'm concerned, I take no offense, but I will try to explain
> the current situation of bug reports against the FSF GNAT tree.
>
> You're not doing anything wrong... except that you expect non-paid
> volunteers to do the job in a short time window. As one of the (very
> few) people who fix GNAT bugs in the FSF version, I choose the issues
> to address according to:
>
>   - the time I have (I do this on my free time, and I have a full-time
>     job and many other computer-related and computer-unrelated
>     activities);
>
>   - the tools I use (I've never needed gnatxref for my Ada
>     development);
>
>   - the severity of the bugs according to my own ratings (an internal
>     compiler error is high on the list, especially when it is
>     triggered by valid real-world Ada code, a problem on a
>     specially-crafted example concerning an obscure RM rule is low on
>     my list).
>
> The main issue is the first one I describe, i.e. the time to work on
> GNAT. A few months ago, I started fixing the bugs one after another,
> in the hope that more people would join the effort. Some of them (in
> particular Ludovic Brenta and Duncan Sands) do a tremendous job for
> the community, but we really lack manpower. AdaCore is also very
> helpful with volunteers working on the public version of GCC; we
> *need* to find more people to work on FSF GNAT.
>
> So unless someone gets excited by your bug report, you would better
> try to fix it yourself if you have the needed expertise and time, or
> wait until it gets fixed by AdaCore because one of their clients has
> reported it.
>
> The main point is: when people work on Free Software as a hobby, they
> will set their own agenda. And when there aren't many people, not many
> topics are addressed at once.
>
> Anyway, thanks for your bug report. Properly reporting issues is already
> an important way to contribute back to Free Software you use.
>
>   Sam
> --
> Samuel Tardieu -- s...@rfc1149.net --http://www.rfc1149.net/

Thank you Sam for your clarifications, I understand the process a
little better.
I appreciate your effort (I have seen it at work previously) and that
of others.

I unfortunately lack the expertise and the time to fix gnat; maybe
someday.

regards,
chris