[Python-Dev] Closing old bugs

[Michael Hudson]

"Raymond Hettinger" <raymond.hettinger at verizon.net> writes:

> There should be some greater care exercised in closing old bugs.

Possibly.  OTOH, we have something like 900 open bugs to work on, and
it's not like bug reporters can't re-open a bug report if they think
it's been closed in error (this has happened a few times already, and
it's a good thing, IMHO).

> Marking them "deprecated" and then erasing them is only a good strategy
> if we have no means of reproducing the error or ascertaining what the OP
> was talking about. 
>
> For instance, in www.python.org/sf/640553 , it was possible for a
> reviewer to directly verify whether usr/local local was still being used
> in setup.py.

Well, that one in particular was always in the "is it really a bug?"
category.

> Likewise, www.python.org/sf/728515 should not have been
> closed (Martin's post could have been taken as a clue that the bug was
> valid and simply waiting for some volunteer to submit a patch).
>
> Old age and a missing OP is not sufficient reason to close a bug. 

But if closing a bug is an effective way of kicking things into life
again...

Cheers,
mwh

-- 
  ARTHUR:  Don't ask me how it works or I'll start to whimper.
                   -- The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Episode 11