Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!usc!snorkelwacker!mit-eddie!thakur
From: thakur@eddie.mit.edu (Manavendra K. Thakur)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: xbugs needs wider distribution
Message-ID: <1990Apr13.222233.9803@eddie.mit.edu>
Date: 13 Apr 90 22:22:33 GMT
References: <4132@labtam.oz> <9004050051.AA11859@expire.lcs.mit.edu>
Reply-To: thakur@zerkalo.harvard.edu (Manavendra K. Thakur)
Organization: MIT EE/CS Computer Facilities, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 31

In article <9004050051.AA11859@expire.lcs.mit.edu> rws@EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU (Bob Scheifler) writes:
>Access to bug reports and their status is one of the benefits of membership
>in the X Consortium.  Many bugs get fixed without ever being published as
>public patches; access to these fixes is also one of the benefits of
>membership.  We have no plans to make bug reports generally available.

Could you at least give us some guidelines as to *which* bug reports
and fixes you do tend to publish as public patches?  There are a lot
of patches posted to xpert and other public forums, and keeping track
of them is largely a case of being in the right place at the right
time.  So it'd be very helpful to know whether a particular patch
posted to xpert is likely to make it into an official patch or not --
if I can tell that the fix is likely to be included into an official
patch, then I don't have to save it.

Also, can you answer exactly who makes the decision to send public
patches?  I mean, I assume it's the X Consortium, but how do you folks
decide which patches to publish publicly?  In particular, do the
Consortium members (i.e. vendors) have veto power over what type of
fixes you decide to publish?

I applaud the X Consortium for its fine work and ongoing support of
X11, but I have to say that I find this sort of bugfix hoarding to be
offensive and distasteful.  I suppose, though, that there's not really
much I can do about it.

                                Manavendra K. Thakur
                                System Manager, High Energy Division
                                Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophyics
                                thakur@zerkalo.harvard.edu
                                thakur@cfa.harvard.edu