[Systers-dev] Mailman defects, procedure for handling

[Anne Gunn]

   Erica and I had a great code reading session this morning and, in the
   course of it, found an entirely harmless but real defect in the mailman
   code.  (A line of code that does nothing and should either be removed
   entirely or moved to where it would do what may have been the intended
   effect.  We think it should just be removed.)
   Since our Systers project/repository only contains our own, customized
   code files, I suggested the following procedure to Erica.  Please let
   us know if there is anything wrong or missing from this:
     * Change the code locally and test (but, frankly, in this case the
       line does nothing and taking it out will do nothing too, so there's
       not much to test)
     * Do whatever it takes on Launchpad to become a Mailman contributor
     * File a Mailman defect report
     * Submit the proposed patch for the Mailman defect report
     * Send an email to systers-dev that summarizes the defect and fix and
       refers to the mailman problem report #.  Systers system admins can
       then decide whether or not to apply the patch to our installation
       and other teams can decide if they want to apply it to their local
       repositories.

   All of the above is a bit of overkill for this particular defect but:
     * We're going to have enough hands in the code this summer that we
       may find other defects in the Mailman code, one or more of them
       serious.  We may as well have a standard process for dealing with
       issues that are in the Mailman code rather than in our
       customizations.
     * No broken windows.  Any well understood defect that can safely be
       eliminated should be documented and eliminated.  Old, dead,
       never-executed code should be removed so it doesn't waste the time
       of the next person reading the code.

   After some period of time for corrections/additions, I'll try to find
   an appropriate place on the wiki to record the right procedure.  I did
   a quick search and couldn't find one.  Please let me know if I just
   missed it.
   ag
   -----------------------
   Anne Gunn
   ompeag @ wyoming.com
   307 673 5234