[R] Re: R-bugs interfacing to R-devel mailing list

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> "Jim" == Jim Lindsey <jlindsey at alpha.luc.ac.be> writes:

    >>  Please do *not* Cc: bug reports to other lists. This will only
    >> cause most people to receive it in two versions, one of which will
    >> be lacking the Problem Report identifier (PR# xxx). If someone then
    >> replies to "all recipients", this will open up a *new* Problem
    >> Report, etc.

    Jim> I don't quite understand. How are members only of R-help to be
    Jim> informed of important new bugs without regularly consulting
    Jim> r-bugs?  (I never think to myself.) Do the two versions you
    Jim> mention include one to r-help? Jim

No, definitely, not.

Most things that have been (and should be) reported to R-bugs
are NOT important bugs.

* Some are not bugs at all
     - because the sender was mistaken
  or
     - because it's really a matter of taste

* Some really happen only rarely, 
  and give error messages that are clear enough, 
  such that a user will `program around', etc.
* Some (e.g. UseMethod/ scoping rules / eval / substitute)  really are
  for more sophisticated R users  whereas R-help usually has a more general
  (applied) statisticians' audience.
  
* Documentations  typos, ...  *are* bugs [see the R-FAQ];
  you help the R community a lot by reporting them, and we do fix them
  (sometimes only eventually).
  However, almost always they are not of much relevance to the R user, 
  and shouldn't be reported to R-help.

-------

If important bugs are found, 
they should be reported to R-help.
I think however, that we haven't seen many of them in the last
months (years?), and *did* report them (mostly?).

And:  People who are actively developing R software (e.g. package writers)
      should really be subscribed to R-devel.

martin
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