[H-GEN] Code development and documentation methods

James C. McPherson James.McPherson at Sun.COM
Thu Nov 14 00:32:45 EST 2002


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On Thu, 14 Nov 2002 14:45:42 +1000 David Jericho <david.jericho at bytecomm.com.au> wrote:
> I'm doing a fair bit of code development and bug chasing in my current
> role, and I'm falling down in the documentation area.
> Basically, as things are at the moment, the process for fixing a bug is
> * Identify bug and cause
> * Specify the fix to happen, in plain english w/hardcopy
> * Fix the code
> * Test the code 
> * Commit code
> * Record test results, and diff of changes with log of
>   changes w/hard copy
> What methods of documentation and appeasing those who command thou do
> other humbug members use? 

Hi David,
what sort of code-review process do you have? Within the part of Sun that
I work for, if I want to get a bugfix committed into the source tree then
I have to get a peer-facilitated code review, then file an RTI (request to
integrate) at which point the designated development engineer for that module 
or program has to also review the code. This is because we have PDE (product
development engineers/ing) and PTS (Product Technical Support) teams which
both do bugfixes and new code. You might have heard of CTE or CPRE -- that's
what PTS was 6 months ago.

We also have the concept of a gatekeeper for the source tree as a whole, who 
opens the gate only at certain well-defined times - if you miss the opening 
of the gate then your fix has to wait until the next opening ;|

Yes it's beauracracy, and yes it can be infuriating and time consuming. It
does seem to work quite well for the globally-dispersed bunch of codes who
put together all Sun's software products. (ok, vendor-centric flag waving
done!)


cheers,
James C. McPherson
--
Pacrim PTS Engineer            828 Pacific Highway
                               Gordon NSW 
Sun Microsystems Australia     2072


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