Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!comp.vuw.ac.nz!nickson
From: nickson@comp.vuw.ac.nz (Ray Nickson)
Newsgroups: gnu.bash.bug
Subject: suggestions for making it easier for local bash maintainers
Message-ID: <8908102223.AA01924@comp.vuw.ac.nz>
Date: 10 Aug 89 22:20:50 GMT
Sender: daemon@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Distribution: gnu
Organization: GNUs Not Usenet
Lines: 29

Some suggestions, that you might consider for a future release:

 - how about automatically-mailed bug reports always go to MAINTAINER,
   and only to you as a last resort?  They could then include an `if
   you don't understand this, pass it on to me' type comment....

 - how about automatically giving version numbers an extra field to
   say which number local build this is (a la emacs).  i.e. my first
   build of 1.02 would be 1.02.1, etc.

 - would it be possible for you to comment on posted bugfixes when
   you've had a look at them, so people using bash as their login
   shell can keep up to date with fixes without incorporating
   unsanctioned fixes, which you have already indicated is a source
   of some annoyance to you (I've stopped posting patches for this
   reason).  i know it means extra work for you, but it might be worth
   considering if it means people are testing a bash that looks more
   like your current version.

 - could bash move away from the #ifdef SYSV approach, towards
   something like emacs's config.h, where I have a separate symbol for
   each feature? (#ifdef SYSV_STRINGS, #ifdef HAVE_ALLOCA etc). 
   This would be especially appreciated for HPUX, which is a SYSV
   system that becomes more and more BSD with each release.

-rgn
--
Ray Nickson, Dept. Comp. Sci., Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
nickson@comp.vuw.ac.nz       ...!uunet!vuwcomp!nickson      + 64 4 721000x8593