Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: How Do You Track Bugs For Personal Software Projects?
An anonymous reader writes "One of my personal software projects grows bigger than I thought and the bugs becomes too many to just remember. I looked around for an open source bugs tracking system but found no ideal solutions. Ideally I wanted a simple system that does not need server setup and extra database setup, and can run under Mac OS X. Another option is a cloud service if it's affordable enough. Any suggestions from Slashdot?"
check it in with your code, add and remove bugs as needed. 5 seconds of setup. Search and has a history.
Okay, first I'm not given a lot of info about what you are trying to do, so I am forced to make assumptions. First, you are doing this part-time. Second, you have a small amount of users. Third, I assume these users either email you or tell you about problems in person. Fourth, you don't have any need to formally update people on statuses.
I have a great solution for you. It is called a spreadsheet. The positive is that is it free, easy to use and modify to suit your needs. No, it isn't flashy, but I find that folks tend to use software as a replacement for their own brain and creativity. I've used spreadsheets for a lot of different utilities from project management, to bug tracking to help desk support in small environments. Once the user base sees limitations, they can begin to see what they truly need and it helps immensely in determinng what the desired solution really is versus what the Microsoft shill^h^h^h^h^h consultant tells them they need.
So, yes, use a spreadsheet. Heck, in your case it really sounds like a text editor would meet your needs.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
> What happens when you have more bugs than you have time to fix?
You put a quick note in with a TODO tag
> How do you choose which to work on first?
You switch to a view that shows all your TODO tags and take your pick
> How do you remember which ones lead to data loss, and which ones have a workaround?
You type those details into the TODO tag
> How do you remember how to reproduce each bug?
See above
> How do you manage patches?
diff on commit = patch. no big deal.
> How do you remember which patches are compatible with other patches?
whatever man, you are really reaching here. make all patches compatible with all others, or pay the price. this is a personal project.
> How do you track the number of reported occurrences of a bug so you can prioritize your fixes more intelligently?
again, simply add this type of detail to your TODO tag
-Lod