Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!haven!umbc3!brian
From: brian@umbc3.UMD.EDU (Brian Cuthie)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.microport
Subject: Re: uport questions
Message-ID: <1166@umbc3.UMD.EDU>
Date: 6 Sep 88 14:43:04 GMT
References: <2569@alembic.UUCP> <1172@bellboy.UUCP> <376@bdt.UUCP>
Reply-To: brian@umbc3.UMD.EDU (Brian Cuthie)
Organization: University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Lines: 31

In article <376@bdt.UUCP> david@bdt.UUCP (David Beckemeyer) writes:
...
>Much better would be an automated "bug reporting" system that could
>parse subject lines of incoming E-mail to a specific user, perhaps
>uport!bugs.
...
>This would
>also mean that uport could publish the reported bugs, and their fixes
>or work-arounds for everybody.   As it is now, many of the problems
>I report to uport never appear on a bug-list anywhere.
>

I think the biggest problem with microport is not actually with engineering
or tech support.  I believe their problems are more marketing related.  That's
why it's extremely unlikely that they will *ever* publish true bug reports
(that means ones with *all* the bugs listed).  Publishing a report like that is
often seen by the marketing department as "giving away our position" or
"giving the enemy amunition." 
 
>I think if uport doesn't implement something like the above, we are
>going to have to start posting bugs so we can all find our own
>solutions and work-arounds which would be a lot worse on the net.

This is the best sollution I've heard yet.  I would even volunteer to hold
the data base.  As hard as John Plocher tries, I believe his hands are always
going to be tied, to some extent.  If we want to know which things are bugs
and which problems are isolated events (or pilot error) it is necessary
to communicate problems with other users.  This communication must be 
free from flames, however, or it will be no better than this news group.

-brian