petert wrote:
I wasn't completely sure what you meant. Are you saying you want to lower the number of trunk-related bug reports by not bumping the revision number?
I meant bug reports in patch threads.
If all would be like it should be, there would be no patch-bug reports made to the Devs, unfortunately ...
I would disagree. I remember one build with a serious train-building bug, and I had to bump it to trunk so that it would not have the bug.
In case of discovering a serious bug I would report it to the patchmaker so he can post a new version and only then post a new binary so he knows for himself what has changed and where in that version. For all you know half his/her patch depends one that one piece of code you fixed.
The above assuming the patch is under active development, and you are not a co-patch-writer. Bumping an old patch you like with a newer version is another story.
I think that a newer trunk version usually contains a smaller amount of bugs.
I agree but its not like the new binary can not wait a day. when a patchwriter bumps his patch he first takes a look at the changelog, at least I do and I can tell on the beforehand if a certain bugfix or new feature is going to cause problems for me or not while bumping most of the times. eg. smallmap zooming and colours.
Just to give you an example of what can happen.
The terraforming cost code in the other patch. I have commented it out because I know it belongs somewhere else and I did not get to moving it yet.
You could have decided that you can fix it by removing the return and putting it before the return that is allready there. Yes that would seem to fix the bug, but It would also break the way the patch is written. We calculate our terraforming costs elsewhere.
Then in six months time someone comes along complaining that some other costs are off and I have no clue where to start looking, remember, you fixed the bug in your version but by accident created a bug somewhere deeper in the code. I have continued in another way but the player is playing with your version and complains to me. Now I am looking for a bug that does no longer exists in my version ...
Or even worse, the patch gave no error because the cost calculation has snuggled itself before the other return so nothing appeared broken -> our custom code is no longer executed but the patch runs. You post the new patch, I have not looked at the changelog because I was feeling lazy for a week or two and continue without worries because peeps have been playing for some time with your patch and had no problem. Then in six months ...
The "worse" scenario would not be your fault but I would have spotted it maybe if I was bumping myself. I have had a few bugs slip past me like that when I was struggling to get past a certain revision.
To conclude:
Most programmers appreciate it very much when you present them code to fix their code, yours truly included. If you know about a bug or you have code by all means post it. (eg. flyspray for vanilla OpenTTD bugs)
Most programmers if not all do not appreciate bug reports for code they have not written. (eg. patch bugs on flyspray)
/me thinks enough off topic for today. me also still thinks it was funny moehahahaa. Signature material. roflol.
