How to report bugs
Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2003 10:14 am
[I made this post on another forum years ago, but the relevant parts are copied here for future reference]
The best bug report is one that leads to the bug being fixed!
There is no single clear way of doing this, but it's a good idea to include an accurate description of what you did and what happened as a result. If it's not blindingly obvious, also stating what you think it should have done would be useful too.
A perfect bug report would also include a test dungeon with a minimal number of objects in it (typically just 1 or 2. but sometimes a few more) that reproduces the problem.
The only other extra thing that would be really useful, is to make sure that there's only one bug per thread.
This is mostly for my benefit as extra bugs tend to get lost if there are lots of replies. If each bug is in a new thread and clearly labeled then I can't miss it and it stands a much better chance of being fixed in the next release.
---------------------------------
BAD: "Triggers don't work."
GOOD: "A Trigger with action RELEASE and a target of itself causes a crash when you activate it. I think the game compiler should display an error when compiling the dungeon in this case to show it's an invalid configuration. I've emailed you a test dungeon that shows this - simply click on the switch directly ahead of the entrance to cause the crash."
The best bug report is one that leads to the bug being fixed!
There is no single clear way of doing this, but it's a good idea to include an accurate description of what you did and what happened as a result. If it's not blindingly obvious, also stating what you think it should have done would be useful too.
A perfect bug report would also include a test dungeon with a minimal number of objects in it (typically just 1 or 2. but sometimes a few more) that reproduces the problem.
The only other extra thing that would be really useful, is to make sure that there's only one bug per thread.
This is mostly for my benefit as extra bugs tend to get lost if there are lots of replies. If each bug is in a new thread and clearly labeled then I can't miss it and it stands a much better chance of being fixed in the next release.
---------------------------------
BAD: "Triggers don't work."
GOOD: "A Trigger with action RELEASE and a target of itself causes a crash when you activate it. I think the game compiler should display an error when compiling the dungeon in this case to show it's an invalid configuration. I've emailed you a test dungeon that shows this - simply click on the switch directly ahead of the entrance to cause the crash."