Zugg Software :: View topic

Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 5:49 pm

I'm posting this topic again, because it's very important for new users to this forum to understand how to report bugs. You can see the original sticky topic HERE. Please read the How to Report Bugs topic again, especially if you are new to these forums.

Why is it so important to post a detailed procedure to reproduce your bug? Before a bug is added to my tracking database, I need to confirm that I can reproduce it on my computer. If I cannot reproduce a bug, there is no way for me to track it down and fix it. The harder you make it for me to reproduce a bug, the less likely it will be fixed.

Also, I can't fix every bug in each new version. Many times a bug report will stay in my database for several beta versions before I get to it. Once I get to it, I need to reproduce it to see if the bug has already been fixed as a side effect of some other bug report. If a bug doesn't have a procedure for reproducing it, then the bug report gets moved to the "cannot verify" folder in my database, which essentially means it will be ignored forever.

I know that some bugs are very hard to reproduce. The hardest bugs are those that don't happen reliably each time. Often this is a timing issue with multiple scripts and threads.

But remember that this is the BETA forum. If you are using a BETA version, you have agreed (when you downloaded it) to help test this version and help report bugs. Part of the work of a Beta Tester is to explore a problem within your own sessions and scripts to try and pin-point how to reproduce a bug. Using a Beta version does NOT mean you just use it to play your MUDs and then make a post when something goes wrong. It means that you are actively involved in trying to isolate the bug so it can be reproduced. Yes, that's a lot of work, but that is why you get access to the latest versions of CMUD.

Keep this in mind when posting to any of the Discussion Forums here at Zuggsoft. If you don't post details on how to reproduce your problem, then don't be surprised if you get ignored and nobody answers your post.