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Unread 05-03-2015, 00:03
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RobotPy Guy
AKA: Dustin Spicuzza
FRC #1418 (), FRC #1973, FRC #4796, FRC #6367 ()
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Re: RoboRIO / FMS / mDNS / lessons learned

Quote:
Originally Posted by jwhite View Post
Sure.

Disclaimer, this is all meant in a constructive way, and I know that you have little control over collab.net. Just trying to cheerfully and positively illustrate my experience.


Nit #1 - this page:
http://wpilib.screenstepslive.com/s/...-documentation
At the bottom, there is a list of what to do with an unresolved problem. That list, or elements of it, could be drawn out on the 'Troubleshooting' main page; or be somewhat more visible. I only found it because I knew you wouldn't have asked me to file a bug if I there wasn't a link, so I just kept digging until I found it. And then, really minor nit, I think the list of three action items should be bullets; my eye scans better that way. (I found the link with a ctrl-F on collab, *not* by seeing it). Super dooper teeny nit: the url could be an href...

Nit #2: this page:
https://usfirst.collab.net/sf/projects/wpilib/
Doesn't really have good guidance for someone new to all this. The welcome tells me how to clone the code, and points me back to the same documentation I just came from it I want more help. The 'getting around' and 'how to participate' sections are empty. Be nice to have more newb friendly advice. (The opening could be, if you are a developer, then...to report a bug, then ....)

Okay, now I've been a good boy, and remembered that I'm supposed to do something with Trackers. So I click on 'Trackers' (not bugs; nowhere on this page does it say what to do if I want to report a bug).

As as exercise, click on that with an icognito window to get the newb experience. Nowhere on that page is there an obvious way to enter a bug. You're in list mode. Now let's say you get lucky, and you click 'Plan' mode. Now you're invited to pick a planning folder. Or maybe 3. Who knows? You just want to enter a bug...

But let's say you try it, and you pick Java. Gee, that '+' button is greyed out, with no tooltip.

So then you make an account, repeat the exercise, and then finally you enter, not a bug, mind you, but an 'Artifact'. And then you have apparently done it.

And then you go back and write a disclaimer because you're not really grumpy :-).

Cheers,

Jeremy
Yeah, seriously, they should use github for hosting wpilib. We'd all be happier. Collab is just terrible in so many ways -- this is why new projects rarely choose sourceforge.
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Maintainer of RobotPy - Python for FRC
Creator of pyfrc (Robot Simulator + utilities for Python) and pynetworktables/pynetworktables2js (NetworkTables for Python & Javascript)

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