[racket-dev] bug reports: include prefs file?

Include it, provide a prominent button that is labeled "Remove my preferences before submitting." Why wouldn't that be a decent start? -- Matthias



On Sep 27, 2011, at 10:06 PM, Robby Findler wrote:

> Hm. That seems like more work than just asking people when it seems
> relevant. Maybe the status quo is best, after all.
> 
> Robby
> 
> On Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 9:02 PM, Neil Van Dyke <neil at neilvandyke.org> wrote:
>> Making it easy for people to include their prefs in bug reports seems like a
>> good thing.
>> 
>> Like now, I think one would want to expose to people in a reasonable fashion
>> what info is being disclosed, and permit them to opt-out.  Or maybe they
>> should have opt-in, if you're including the *all* the preferences.
>> 
>> Like now, you could also permit them to edit the info, such as if they
>> wanted to remove references to a confidential project but leave the other
>> info intact.  Editing is problematic for debugging from this info, but a
>> compromise.  The bug-reporting tool could indicate that the info has been
>> edited by the user.
>> 
>> Looking at "racket-prefs.rktd" just now, it's not that big, and is fairly
>> readable, but it could be presented better for informed consent.  Maybe the
>> most bang for the buck would be to sort it by increasing order of
>> known-benign-ness and secondarily by size of value.  So, near the top would
>> be info like user's name, recent files, and REPL history.  In the middle
>> would be things that are likely benign, but that might conceivably reveal
>> proprietary info (e.g., "plt:framework-pref:framework:tabify" and default
>> language can refer to confidential names).  Near the end would be things
>> like window geometries.  And very near the end would be the color
>> preferences, which seem to pretty-print big.  Preferences we don't recognize
>> would be at or near the very top.  Then just pretty-print it, maybe
>> syntax-color it, and permit it to be viewed/edited.  (Basically, do the
>> opposite of what some software and online companies do with EULAs, AUPs, and
>> privacy policies.  Emphasize the stuff most relevant to subject rather than
>> burying it, and don't force it to be viewed in a tiny font in a
>> 30x5-character window like we don't want people to actually read it.)
>> 
>> 
>> Robby Findler wrote at 09/27/2011 08:29 PM:
>>> 
>>> Should I change DrRacket's bug report window so it includes the user's
>>> preferences file? It would have been helpful in more than a few bugs
>>> now but I'm not sure if it would bother people to have it put in
>>> there.
>>> 
>> 
>> --
>> http://www.neilvandyke.org/
>> 
> 
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