R devel - Jun 2017 - SUGGESTION: Use JIRA for Bug Reporting, Package Development and Project Management

Dear R Developers,

I started programming in R just last January, for which I read (, summarized and
memorized) 2 incredible R Programming books: "R Cookbook" and "R
Graphics Cookbook".

However, I did before know how to program in MariaDB SQL language, and had
submitted for their bug platform previously some bugs
(https://jira.mariadb.org/projects/MDEV/issues), which is based on JIRA:

https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira

On the other hand, R has the mailing list, which is really simple, but:
a) I found it really difficult at first to understand how it worked.
b) I feel it does not fully respect the privacy of the package maintainers.
c) And it can give place to e-mail Spam.

In fact, Rstudio has disabled bug.report(package = "somePkg") command
in order to avoid misuse.

That is why I would suggest that, being JIRA free for Open Source Projects such
as R:

https://de.atlassian.com/software/views/open-source-license-request

It would be really worth it to start using this modern platform gradually
instead of Bugzilla, or the mailing lists, for new R developed packages.

This would imply a considerable change to the R community, but I really think it
would be worth it, and would help it to improve and be even greater. Although I
might be wrong, and there might be different point of views which could be
better than mine. However, I do sincerely think that testing this platform
instead of Bugzilla would be really worth it.

Hope my suggestion is useful.

Kind regards,
Juan Telleria

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

I enjoy the simplicity of a mailing list; I'd prefer not to create a new
user account to participate in a software project. Plenty of other software
communities utilize mailing lists, and I think you'll also begin to prefer
email as you get more involved with software projects.

R is also a GNU package? so I don't think it's a good idea to use a
closed source product like JIRA. I also think it's easier for the core devs
to manage a mailing list instead of a JIRA instance.

I'm not sure what you mean about privacy concerns for package maintainers;
can you elaborate?

Sahil

#############################################################################################################################
## JIRA
#############################################################################################################################

#
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# - Advantages
#
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- It would allow the community (other than maintainers) to freely contribute
giving suggestions to R patches on Packages, or R Base Code , boosting
innovation.

- It does allow to attach documents, and sample files directly in the platform.

- Agile Project Management, open and in eyes of the community during the
development.

#
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# - Disadvantages
#
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- That JIRA stops being Free at some time for Open Source Project (Maybe in 20
years from now). So it would be critical to be able to ensure, by some sort of
agreement,
   that JIRA will be ALWAYS be free for R, as a life-long project.

- Need an account.

- ?Complex?

#############################################################################################################################
## Mailing List & Bugzilla
#############################################################################################################################

#
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# - Privacy
#
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- What I mean with privacy concerns is that a developer has its e-mail exposed
to the whole Internet, which might be what is desired, or not.

- ?Spam?

#
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# - Advantages
#
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- Simplicity.

- Accessible.

#
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# - Disadvantages
#
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-  Easy to manage if you are part of few projects, but ?Is it also easy to
manage when you are part of a lot of projects? ?And deliver all of them on time?

-  Does not allow big file sharing, neither have them saved.

On 08/06/2017 6:31 AM, TELLERIA RUIZ DE AGUIRRE, JUAN
wrote:
> Dear R Developers,
>
> I started programming in R just last January, for which I read (,
summarized and memorized) 2 incredible R Programming books: "R
Cookbook" and "R Graphics Cookbook".
>
> However, I did before know how to program in MariaDB SQL language, and had
submitted for their bug platform previously some bugs
(https://jira.mariadb.org/projects/MDEV/issues), which is based on JIRA:
>
> https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira
>
> On the other hand, R has the mailing list, which is really simple, but:
> a) I found it really difficult at first to understand how it worked.
> b) I feel it does not fully respect the privacy of the package maintainers.
> c) And it can give place to e-mail Spam.
>
> In fact, Rstudio has disabled bug.report(package = "somePkg")
command in order to avoid misuse.
>
> That is why I would suggest that, being JIRA free for Open Source Projects
such as R:
>
> https://de.atlassian.com/software/views/open-source-license-request
>
> It would be really worth it to start using this modern platform gradually
instead of Bugzilla, or the mailing lists, for new R developed packages.
>
> This would imply a considerable change to the R community, but I really
think it would be worth it, and would help it to improve and be even greater.
Although I might be wrong, and there might be different point of views which
could be better than mine. However, I do sincerely think that testing this
platform instead of Bugzilla would be really worth it.
>
> Hope my suggestion is useful.
You are talking about R and its packages as though they are all part of 
one project, but in fact most packages are separate projects.  Many of 
them use other systems for bug reporting and contributions.  Github is 
quite popular these days; many older packages use R-forge, and of course 
Bioconductor provides its own facilities.

I think it's unlikely that R itself would move to JIRA, for the reasons 
Sahil gave, and other reasons (including inertia).  But if you are 
arguing that individual packages should move to JIRA, you need to 
explain why it is better than Github, R-forge, Bioconductor, etc, not 
just better than the mailing lists.  I think it will be hard to make the 
argument, because all of those have R-specific features, as well as 
existing communities to go to for help.

Duncan Murdoch

Thank you Duncan.

You really have a point. 

I made my suggestion based on a comparison between MariaDB Server (GNU GPL v2)
Bug Reporting System (JIRA: https://jira.mariadb.org/projects/MDEV/issues &
Github: https://github.com/MariaDB) and R (GNU GPL v2); and I thought "Base
R" (Bugzilla / R-Devel) or "Packages" (Github, R-forge,
Bioconductor, Mailing-List) could benefit from it, at it is a powerful resource
in my opinion that community shall be aware off.

However, as it is right now it is also great.

Kind regards,
Juan

-----Mensaje original-----
De: Duncan Murdoch [mailto:murdoch.duncan at gmail.com] 
Enviado el: jueves, 08 de junio de 2017 16:52
Para: TELLERIA RUIZ DE AGUIRRE, JUAN; r-devel at r-project.org
Asunto: Re: [Rd] SUGGESTION: Use JIRA for Bug Reporting, Package Development and
Project Management

On 08/06/2017 6:31 AM, TELLERIA RUIZ DE AGUIRRE, JUAN
wrote:
> Dear R Developers,
>
> I started programming in R just last January, for which I read (,
summarized and memorized) 2 incredible R Programming books: "R
Cookbook" and "R Graphics Cookbook".
>
> However, I did before know how to program in MariaDB SQL language, and had
submitted for their bug platform previously some bugs
(https://jira.mariadb.org/projects/MDEV/issues), which is based on JIRA:
>
> https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira
>
> On the other hand, R has the mailing list, which is really simple, but:
> a) I found it really difficult at first to understand how it worked.
> b) I feel it does not fully respect the privacy of the package maintainers.
> c) And it can give place to e-mail Spam.
>
> In fact, Rstudio has disabled bug.report(package = "somePkg")
command in order to avoid misuse.
>
> That is why I would suggest that, being JIRA free for Open Source Projects
such as R:
>
> https://de.atlassian.com/software/views/open-source-license-request
>
> It would be really worth it to start using this modern platform gradually
instead of Bugzilla, or the mailing lists, for new R developed packages.
>
> This would imply a considerable change to the R community, but I really
think it would be worth it, and would help it to improve and be even greater.
Although I might be wrong, and there might be different point of views which
could be better than mine. However, I do sincerely think that testing this
platform instead of Bugzilla would be really worth it.
>
> Hope my suggestion is useful.
You are talking about R and its packages as though they are all part of one
project, but in fact most packages are separate projects.  Many of them use
other systems for bug reporting and contributions.  Github is quite popular
these days; many older packages use R-forge, and of course Bioconductor provides
its own facilities.

I think it's unlikely that R itself would move to JIRA, for the reasons
Sahil gave, and other reasons (including inertia).  But if you are arguing that
individual packages should move to JIRA, you need to explain why it is better
than Github, R-forge, Bioconductor, etc, not just better than the mailing lists.
I think it will be hard to make the argument, because all of those have
R-specific features, as well as existing communities to go to for help.

Duncan Murdoch