What exactly is a bug?

A bug in software can be many things. It can be an unexpected crash of the application, it can be an unexpected result to input (2+2=tomato), or it can be any number of other things. If you think you've found a bug, something that is happening, and probably should not be, it may be a bug. I think I've found a bug, now what?

Once you're sure you've found a bug, there are a few things you should do, just to make sure this bug is worth reporting to the team or via the bugtracker:

• Reproduce it, then reproduce it again. Make sure you can replicate the bug more than once. An error that happens one time, and one time only, is very hard to track down and reproduce, and thus is harder to fix. Try to make the problem happen more than once, and document how to cause it. This will help the team re-create your bug, and help to fix it.
• Identify which component or piece(s) of software are involved in reproducing the bug. Was it the viewer? The distiller? The installation script? The desktop components? Something else? It helps to know where exactly the bug occurs.
• Search the mailing list archive for others who may be having the same problem. Perhaps the bug you've found has already been fixed, and a newer bug-free version of Plucker has been released which solves your bug.
• Search the bugtracker for existing bug reports that may be similar to your own. If you find a similar bug report in the system, enter your results as a bugnote in the existing report. If you are sure your bug is unique, file a new bug report in the system (and please remember to be very detailed in your description).
• Provide details about the nature of the bug, how to reproduce it, on what hardware, software, and versions of same. Some of these include:
  • the type of Palm device you're using
  • the version of the PalmOS on your device
  • the version of Plucker you are using
  • the version of Python installed on your system
  • any parameters passed to the distiller

What types of things are NOT bugs?

There are a few things which are not generally considered bugs. Here are a few examples:

• Desktop or server system crashes, kernel crashes, or other non-Plucker software errors that occured while using Plucker. One such example would be:
  
  When I was downloading my favorite website with Plucker, my Windows machine locked up and rebooted on me!
  
  Not a bug.
• Any custom changes you may have made to the core Plucker components before you began using them. One example of this would be:
  
  I installed Plucker, and edited a few things in the Python distiller, and now Plucker crashes when reading a document.
  
  Not a bug.
• Bugs reported for older versions of Plucker will likely not get much attention, unless the bug is still in the latest version of Plucker.
  
  If you've found a bug in version 1.1.14 of Plucker, when version 1.2 is being tested or has been released, please try to re-create the bug you've found on the latest version of Plucker. If the bug still exists, please report it.

Ok, I reported a bug, what happens next?

The moment you reported your bug, an email was automatically sent to the entire Plucker development team with the details of your bug. Every bug gets attention from at least one person, and often many others.

If you check back periodically, you may see comments on your bug, or attached files to try to help solve the bug. There may also be additional detail added to the bug report, or one of the developers may just find the bug, fix it, and close the bug report.

Happy bug-hunting!