Thursday, 2010-01-28

../irclogs/#mantishelp.2010-01-28.log
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CIA-19Mantisbt: hickseydr * rc0bdd8c98395 / (4 files in 2 dirs): Fix #11041: set_status_threshold doesn't work on a per-project basis00:57
CIA-19Mantisbt: hickseydr master-1.2.x * r9a55e85ce5b0 / (4 files in 2 dirs): Fix #11041: set_status_threshold doesn't work on a per-project basis00:57
alemayohi06:08
alemayoargh ... i hate helper_get_tab-index06:08
alemayowhy do we need tabindex by the way ?06:08
alemayodon't do (all?) browsers anyway's arrange the tabindex sequentially ?06:09
alemayothe problem is, that I am dynamically (javascript) adding new rows with <input> fields - and taking care properly of the tabindex does not seem to be easy06:09
kenguestlo. what release was CVE-2008-4687 fixed in? Can't find mention of it in http://www.mantisbt.org/bugs/changelog_page.php11:17
dhx_mkenguest: http://git.mantisbt.org/?p=mantisbt.git;a=commit;h=4e32f5ae03f0efd3f5fc8de71ce154a37843afc311:42
dhx_mso, bug 970411:42
* dhx_m wonders what the point of CVE is... it doesn't appear the public can amend the status/information on a bug?11:46
dhx_m(even with a trusted review system in place)11:46
kenguestso fixed in release 1.1.4 and onwards. ok.11:46
dhx_myep11:47
kenguestthanks for helping me answer my own question :D11:48
dhx_mhaha11:48
dhx_mI have to say I agree with Linus' stance on security bugs11:49
kenguestwhich is?11:49
kenguestoh.  http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=5069611:49
kenguestis kinda entertaining btw ;-)11:49
dhx_mlol at that bug report11:51
dhx_mmy favourite quote: "Part of your responsibility in your position is to keep track of your tools and the changes coming down the pipeline."11:53
dhx_mis there a bash.org for open source bug reports and mailing list threads? :)11:55
kenguestwell...if there isn't, there ought to be :D11:55
kenguestthe url for that bug report is currently in the topic for #php.pecl - that's how I found it11:56
dhx_mhah12:03
kenguest"Again, I sincerely apologize. We will try to stop fixing bugs in PHP.12:06
kenguest"12:06
kenguestgotta love it12:06
dhx_mit's funny because it's some unappreciative jerk who thinks he's PHP's #1 customer and concern12:12
kenguestand there've been a few of those.12:15
mantisbotBug 9704 - thosjo - fixed - closed12:32
mantisbotRemote Code Execution in manage_proj_page.php - http://www.mantisbt.org/bugs/view.php?id=970412:32
dhx_mcongratulations mantisbot... that was a very speedy 50 minute lookup :p12:35
dawitayahi13:02
alemayois there a way to inherit the database-configuration settings to subprojects ?13:38
alemayohow can I configure my_view_boxes per project? it is an assoc. array and the syntax in that configuration dialog is not clear14:13
paul__nuclear_eclipse: dhx_m : both around?18:10
nuclear_eclipsepaul__: here now19:48
paul__so john21:09
paul__we have someone new to triage bug reports?21:09
nuclear_eclipseyep21:11
paul__whats your preferred webserver ?21:11
paul__nginx or apache or what?21:12
nuclear_eclipseapache21:12
paul__it's starting to nnoyme21:14
dhx_mhi21:16
paul__lo21:16
paul__dhx_m: you got bored today?21:19
dhx_mwith my email?21:20
paul__ya21:20
dhx_mit's been on my mind for a while :)21:20
paul__it's an interesting 'problem' now a days21:20
paul__from one point of view wiki's are great21:21
paul__from another, if your gonna use it as a manual and export it to pdf21:21
paul__you could end up spending hours managing changes to it21:21
dhx_mdon't worry about that... converting to PDF isn't hard :)21:21
dhx_myou just create a page of links to other pages on the Wiki21:21
paul__I think we should have video's to show users how to submit bugs :P21:21
dhx_mas in, a table of contents21:21
dhx_mand set your script on that page at regular intervals to rebuild the PDF21:22
dhx_mmy real concern was not having documentation in a git repository (hence commits + documentation are split from each other)21:22
paul__that's more structure21:23
dhx_malthough I suppose the kind of documentation we need isn't the type you'd typically commit21:23
paul__I know one of you two dislike it21:23
paul__but i know in mercurial21:23
paul__someone set up our 'intranet'21:23
paul__to pull in multiple repositories21:23
paul__which is kinda cool as you put 1 lib in one repo etc21:23
paul__at same time, does make life more interesting21:23
dhx_myep21:23
dhx_mI just think our current Wiki is too hard for our users to edit (restrictions are very tight on making new pages, for instance)21:24
dhx_mand is outdated21:24
dhx_mmore to the point, it duplicates our efforts with the Docbook manual21:24
nuclear_eclipsedhx_m: I'd much rather see the current wiki information dumped into docbook21:28
nuclear_eclipsewiki markup is much harder to understand and edit IMO than tags that are quite explicit about what they mean21:29
paul__we still need to convert our docbook content to xml!21:29
dhx_mI'd argue that Wiki markup is more natural to humans21:30
dhx_myou don't have to constantly write out a million XML tags21:30
nuclear_eclipsethere aren't all that many tags in docbook...21:30
dhx_mXML is great at allowing computers to talk to each other21:30
dhx_mbut not so good at letting humans talk to a computer21:30
dhx_mIMO at least21:30
nuclear_eclipsethere's almost as much markup in wiki, but it's much less explicit21:30
nuclear_eclipse<code>...</code> is much easier to understand and write than making sure you have 4 spaces in front of any random preformatted content21:31
paul__I'd like to see us change how we store the docbook stuff and how we build it a little, but I quite like the idea of having manual in 'docbook' as it were21:31
dhx_mmost Wiki source formatting is done with <code> tags anyway :)21:31
nuclear_eclipseand btw, we can have just as many links to other doc pages in docbook as you can on a wiki ;)21:32
dhx_mbut what about links between different Docbook manuals?21:32
paul__(i'd like to align our docbook stuff to how php.net do theres so we can get editing/commenting functionality in easily)21:32
nuclear_eclipseI dunno about that, I've never even tried21:32
paul__If we moved to a wiki21:32
paul__whilst wiki's are great and all21:32
paul__we need to monitor what gets changed21:33
paul__delete any junk/spam before it turns up in a pdf manual21:33
nuclear_eclipseI think the real problem with wikis is that you both want user contribution, but don't want "bad" user contribution, and there's no way to properly maintain that without someone dedicated to reviewing every single user contribution21:33
dhx_mwell there is FlaggedRevs to let you do just that21:33
dhx_mat least it would be getting documented :p21:34
nuclear_eclipseor trashed, or documented incorrectly, or...21:34
paul__tbh, i'd like to simplify things a bit21:34
paul__dhx/myself had a discussion about templates etc other day21:35
paul__and my issues with mantis atm for that21:35
paul__also kinda applies to the manual21:35
nuclear_eclipsentm there's never any proper or automatically-maintained index or order to wiki information, it's just randomly available from some other random page, and impossible to find what you want21:35
paul__atm, we have a config variable for everything21:35
paul__I'm surprised actually we don't have a config variable to specify the colour of the mantis logo21:36
paul__nuclear_eclipse: is there a method atm to see what hooks are registered21:37
dhx_mnuclear_eclipse: not necessarily, you can make "portal pages"21:37
dhx_mnuclear_eclipse: ie. top level pages that have a sole purpose of linking to content in a particular order21:37
dhx_mnuclear_eclipse: for example, http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/X86_Assembly21:39
dhx_mthen a Wiki=>LaTeX conversion script can scrape the table of contents page to structure a book out of different Wiki pages21:39
nuclear_eclipsedhx_m: those still have to be manually maintained21:40
nuclear_eclipsedocbook by definition builds a proper index for everything in the manual based on the headers and section orders21:40
nuclear_eclipsepaul__: not without looking at the global cache set up by event_api21:41
dhx_mnuclear_eclipse: you'd typically have a chapter per file with DocBook, and a master page that acts as an index21:41
nuclear_eclipsepaul__: not sure there should be any need to find that inforamiot though21:41
dhx_mnot too different to how it's handled on a Wiki in other words21:42
nuclear_eclipsedhx_m: my point is that it's impossible to add sections to a docbook manual without the newly generated index reflecting that change, and in a "proper" ordering based on where the section was added21:43
paul__need a reboot21:43
paul__brb21:43
nuclear_eclipseie, if I added a new section to the event reference chapter, the index automatically lists that section in the proper order21:43
dhx_mnuclear_eclipse: well with a Wiki, you'd insert a new page with content, add a link in the table of contents page and rebuild the PDF... with similar results21:44
dhx_mthe only catch is needing to edit two places instead of one21:44
paul__more work21:44
paul__:)21:44
dhx_mbut given how often one would want to add new content vs modify existing pages, it's not too significant21:44
nuclear_eclipseyes, my point being that it's a) more manual work, and b) impossible to police general users to make sure they do that21:44
dhx_mI think general users would be more likely to fix mistakes and improve wording21:45
dhx_mthan rewrite whole chunks of the manual?21:45
nuclear_eclipsewith Openmoko, they hired someone to do nothing but keep track of the wiki, and it consumed her fulltime job just to maintain the indexes and portal pages, and make sure there weren't any dangling or orphaned pages, etc21:45
nuclear_eclipseit's an immense amount of work to keep a wiki in usable condition, and it will not happen on its own21:46
dhx_mit'd also be a lot of work to take all of Openmoko's documentation efforts and start using Docbook21:46
dhx_mie. merging branches of changes to the manuals, etc21:46
nuclear_eclipseyes, but converting wiki to docbook is a one-off piece of effort -- continually maintaining a wiki is an endless sink of time and effort...21:47
dhx_mI agree it'd be a little costly at first setting up pages and copying content across from the current Wiki and Docbook manuals21:47
dhx_mbut maintaining a Docbook manual is also a lot of effort when you have a lot of editors21:47
nuclear_eclipseor without effort, it becomes the worthless cesspool that we already have on the wiki for mantis... ;)21:48
dhx_mit doesn't scale as well because you'd have to be managing merge conflicts more often21:48
nuclear_eclipsenot really21:48
nuclear_eclipseit's text21:48
nuclear_eclipseit's no harder to handle merges than in code21:48
dhx_mnot hard, time consuming :)21:48
nuclear_eclipsecan't possibly be any more time than trying to maintain a wiki21:49
dhx_mthere isn't that much work involved21:49
nuclear_eclipse...21:49
dhx_mespecially if you have something like FlaggedRevs21:50
nuclear_eclipseon the surface, I would agree, a wiki is the easy option, but to keep a wiki in a usable fashion, to review user changes to make sure they don't trash content, etc, is a lot more work is the end21:50
nuclear_eclipseand you really can't expect a wiki to be anywhere near as useful to publish/distribute with releases as opposed to a manual built from the ground up to be a published document21:51
nuclear_eclipsethe end goal of the docbook efforts is that the very same documentation found on mantisbt.org is the documentation that gets distributed with every release of Mantis21:52
dhx_myou can convert from Wiki => LaTeX without much effort and it looks much better than Docbook output :)21:52
dhx_mwe've actually had people complaining about accessibility of documentation in our release tarballs21:53
nuclear_eclipseit might have a better template, but it's not going to be nearly as usable to the person looking for help or instruction21:53
dhx_mnot that a Wiki would help that ;)21:53
dhx_mwhy do you say that? hyperref can add bookmarks, hyperlinks, etc to PDFs21:54
nuclear_eclipsebecause wikis by definition have no proper ordering of content21:54
nuclear_eclipseyou can't take a giant stack of pages and say "this one is the first section, this is the next, etc"21:55
nuclear_eclipseor at least not on any wiki I know of21:55
dhx_mwell you can create index pages and/or navigation templates21:55
nuclear_eclipse /facepalm :P21:55
nuclear_eclipseyou keep mentioning my biggest dislike of wikis as the reason why it'll work...21:56
dhx_mmore to the point, I doubt the first place people would want to go for documentation is a PDF in book format (straight from the 18th century) which is hard to search and navigate through21:56
nuclear_eclipsethat's why we distribute the HTML format documentation too...21:57
dhx_mwhereas in a Wiki, the pages get searched by Google and appear easily in search results21:57
darynyou know i think dhx_m and nuclear_eclipse need to get an opinion.  it's obvious neither of you has one.21:57
dhx_mlol21:57
nuclear_eclipseshut up daryn :>P21:57
daryn:D21:57
nuclear_eclipsedhx_m: our docbook pages already show up in google searches...21:57
dhx_mthe HTML documentation is ugly :p21:57
dhx_msource code syntax highlighting, images, etc21:58
nuclear_eclipsedhx_m: so help improve the templates...21:58
nuclear_eclipseI've already been making a few small efforts21:58
nuclear_eclipsebut I barely have time to write the documentation, let alone make a docbok template...21:59
daryndocumentation?  we have documentation?21:59
nuclear_eclipsehttp://www.mantisbt.org/docs/master/en/21:59
dhx_mthe reason I don't write documentation is similar to the view here: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/x-sbxml.html22:00
dhx_m"Soapbox: Humans should not have to grok XML"22:00
nuclear_eclipseseriously dhx_m, our docbook isn't xml...22:00
nuclear_eclipseand tags are really not that hard ..22:00
dhx_mit's not too bad22:01
dhx_mbut things like:22:02
dhx_m<link linkend="dev.events.types">event type</link>22:02
dhx_mvs.22:02
dhx_m[[Some page]]22:02
dhx_mstill make it a bit more verbose in places22:02
nuclear_eclipsethe most "ugly" part is giving an id to things, but that's just so that you can link to it more easily from other sections22:02
dhx_mit's even uglier in LaTeX :)22:02
paul__wow guys22:03
dhx_malso can you reuse pages easily between different Docbook manuals?22:03
dhx_mie. you want the same page/section to be included in all our manuals?22:03
paul__I think22:03
paul__we should use adobe's tech suite22:03
paul__for manual!22:03
dhx_mpreserving section numbering/depth, etc22:03
dhx_mpaul__: I AGREE22:04
dhx_mpaul__: :p22:04
* paul__ is being serious22:04
nuclear_eclipsedhx_m: actually, yes we could22:04
paul__http://www.adobe.com/products/technicalcommunicationsuite/22:04
darynhow about MS Word?22:04
paul__http://www.adobe.com/products/technicalcommunicationsuite/22:04
nuclear_eclipsewith unique ids for each section, we could include sections in multiple docbook manuals22:04
dhx_mdaryn: too usable and recent, I recon MS Works is better22:05
paul__capitvate demo's of how to do stuff22:05
paul__framemarker/robehelp for docs22:05
dhx_mnuclear_eclipse: well that's good then, better than LaTeX with that regard :)22:05
paul__what you guys reckon?22:05
dhx_mpaul__: too cheap, only US$1900... I only use software US$10k and up22:06
paul__it can't be that much22:06
nuclear_eclipsewhat OS do you use?22:06
nuclear_eclipsecuz not even solaris costs that much..22:06
dhx_mI wrote my own OS in Mediawiki thanks :p22:07
nuclear_eclipsethen you can't use it, because it didn't cost you...22:07
dhx_m$10k development costs at least :)22:07
nuclear_eclipseanyways22:07
dhx_mbtw did anyone see kenguest's link to: http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=5069622:08
paul__now you guys are billy sill22:08
nuclear_eclipseif you want to put in the effort to convert all the documentation to wiki, and then spend all the effort to build a whole new toolchain to make distributable pdf/html manuals, and then spend the effort to build and maintain indexes and portal pages, and review all the user contributoins, and make sure we don't have orphaned pages or things that nobody can find, that would be fine with me22:09
paul__kenguest?22:09
paul__when was that?22:09
nuclear_eclipseI just think it's a lot less effort for better results to maintain manuals in docbook22:09
dhx_m11hrs ago22:10
nuclear_eclipseI saw that link posted on Hacker News a few weeks ago22:10
dhx_mwell there were a number of other reasons I touched on too such as making the website easily editable as well22:10
dhx_mand thus easy translation of the web page and manual22:10
dhx_mif anyone can be bothered that is22:10
nuclear_eclipsedhx_m: I do like the idea of site and documentation being under one roof22:11
paul__dhx_m: tbh22:11
paul__that should return "" not NULL :P22:11
nuclear_eclipsepaul__: +1 :P22:11
dhx_mpaul__: lol :)22:11
paul__string number_format ( float $number [, int $decimals ] )22:12
paul__string22:12
paul__;)22:12
nuclear_eclipsedhx_m: anyways, I don't mean to just shut down your idea altogether, I was just trying to voice my general concerns about the cost of maintaining a quality wiki22:12
nuclear_eclipsesorry for getting a little overheated about it22:12
dhx_mnuclear_eclipse: I appreciate your comments and do agree it's a bit of work setting it up (although I'd tend to disagree on running maintenance costs)22:13
dhx_mand for the record, you haven't see my overheated in a debate about software :p22:14
nuclear_eclipsedhx_m: we can't even get decent turnaround time on forum moderations, so I have little hope for wiki moderations... :P22:14
dhx_mwe have forums? :p22:14
nuclear_eclipseyeah, exactly22:14
dhx_mevery time I've visited I think my activity has followed this pattern:22:15
dhx_m1) click on a forum22:15
nuclear_eclipseit's a bunch of whinging users who can't figure out how to get Mantis to work correctly with everything else...22:15
dhx_m2) skip half way down the page beyond all the "helpme!!!!1!" and "plz fix Mantis" threads22:15
dhx_m3) see something that finally might be worth looking at ("How do I integrate DokuWiki with Mantis?")22:16
dhx_m4) open it up and see "HELP ME NOW!" as the message (or something similarly useless)22:17
dhx_m5) give up22:17
nuclear_eclipsedhx_m: I worry that with an open wiki we'll eventually see idiots posting support questions on the instructions page 5 lines above the answer.... :P22:17
dhx_mnuclear_eclipse: oh I'm sure it'd happen... or we'd have people editing incorrect rubbish into it "You can integrate Mantis with Microsoft Excel 97 by using this .exe file"22:19
dhx_mbut I still think a Wiki would be easier to use even if it were limited to developers and other trusted users22:20
dhx_mor FlaggedRevs was used22:20
dhx_manyhow, I've gtg for now22:23
nuclear_eclipselike I said, if you are willing to put in the effort, I'd be willing to help arrange it all22:23
dhx_mwill be away for a week, so I won't be on IRC22:24
dhx_mbut I'm still reading emails :)22:24
dhx_mwhen I get back I might have a look at it and setup a demo Wiki to demonstrate the idea22:24
dhx_mI already have config from "one prepared earlier" to make that an easier job to handle22:24
nuclear_eclipseok, well have fun for a week22:25
nuclear_eclipsecheers david22:25
paul__fun for a week??22:26
paul__oh22:26
dhx_malso HgWeb is updated for 0.14, but no file parsing yet ;)22:26
dhx_mholiday :)22:26
nuclear_eclipseok22:26
dhx_mbe good with commits while I'm away :p22:27
dhx_mcya22:27
nuclear_eclipsebye22:27

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