GNU bug report logs - #6509
It's not obvious that landing page is an ordered, paginated list.

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Karl Fogel <kfogel <at> red-bean.com>
To: submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: It's not obvious that landing page is an ordered, paginated list.
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2010 22:59:30 -0400

Package: debbugs.gnu.org

One can't tell that the default Emacs bugs landing page is an ordered,
paginated list.

To reproduce: go to "Emacs reports" from http://debbugs.gnu.org/, and
land on this page:

http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/pkgreport.cgi?package=emacs;max-bugs=100;base-order=1;bug-rev=1

Although that page says at the top that it is

  "Showing results 0 - 100 of 2006."

...there is no indication that the listing is ordered starting from most
recent.  The individual bug lines do not show their filed dates or
latest-activity dates, so to the user they have no anchor in time.  I
did not realize when I went to that page that it was showing me the most
recently filed bugs.

(If you scroll down to the bottom where the search area is, and see that
the the "Reverse Bugs" checkbox is checked, you might guess that it's a
reverse chronological sort, I suppose.)

Message #8 received at 6509 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
To: Karl Fogel <kfogel <at> red-bean.com>
Cc: 6509 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#6509: It's not obvious that landing page is an ordered,
	paginated list.
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2010 15:38:14 -0400

Karl Fogel wrote:

> One can't tell that the default Emacs bugs landing page is an ordered,
> paginated list.
>
> To reproduce: go to "Emacs reports" from http://debbugs.gnu.org/, and
> land on this page:
>
> http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/pkgreport.cgi?package=emacs;max-bugs=100;base-order=1;bug-rev=1
>
> Although that page says at the top that it is
>
>   "Showing results 0 - 100 of 2006."
>
> ...there is no indication that the listing is ordered starting from most
> recent.  The individual bug lines do not show their filed dates or
> latest-activity dates, so to the user they have no anchor in time.  I
> did not realize when I went to that page that it was showing me the most
> recently filed bugs.

I don't know what to do about this. I think adding dates to the
display would just clutter things up and not add very much. It seems
to be a common bug tracker convention that bug number implies a
chronological order. If you click the "Toggle all extra information"
button at the bottom (which perhaps should also be at the top), you
get the dates shown.

I took a look at the default Launchpad and Bugzilla outputs. Eg by
searching for bugs in the Bazaar project, I end up at:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/bazaar/+bugs?field.searchtext=&search=Search+Bug+Reports&field.scope=project&field.scope.target=bazaar

* This does not show any dates.

* It shows a paginated result. The indication of this is "x -> y of z
results", together with "next" and "previous" buttons, at the top and
bottom of the page. This is all basically the same as the debbugs
page.

* The bugs are in some kind of order that is not clearly stated
anywhere. By inspection, it is severity, then bug number. This is the
same as the debbugs page; except that:

i) The division by severity in debbugs is done by dividing things into
separate sections. I think this is clearer, not sure.

ii) Debbugs also does some extra sorting, eg by "moreinfo". There is
no way for you to know this, but if you choose "order by" "oldview"
from the options at the end of the page, this sorting is taken out.

iii) I thought it made most sense to show the most recent reports
first, so ours is in reverse order. If you prefer a non-reversed
order, simply visit debbugs.gnu.org/emacs. This is actually the
default debbugs search result page (except broken up into 400 bug
chunks). The links from the main page debbugs.gnu.org are what I
thought made more sense for browsing.


Taking a look at the default "firefox" bug page in Bugzilla:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=emacs

* Again, there is no date information shown.

* The bugs are not paginated (at least with 850 bugs). I think this is
worse than what debbugs does now.

* Again, the bugs are in some kind of order that is not specified.
It looks to be severity, than bug number again; but I think it is lees
clear than the debbugs display.


So I don't see any clear way to make things substantially better.

The "Summary" sections should probably make it clearer they only apply
to the bugs currently being displayed, not the total on all pages. I
don't know how to make them display the overall totals I'm afraid.

Message #11 received at 6509 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Karl Fogel <kfogel <at> red-bean.com>
To: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 6509 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#6509: It's not obvious that landing page is an ordered,
	paginated list.
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2010 18:29:49 -0400

Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org> writes:
>So I don't see any clear way to make things substantially better.
>
>The "Summary" sections should probably make it clearer they only apply
>to the bugs currently being displayed, not the total on all pages. I
>don't know how to make them display the overall totals I'm afraid.

Okay.  If the summary section just made it clear that it's only
referring to the current page, that would already be a big help in terms
of reducing confusion for new landers on the page -- that might be the
lowest-hanging fruit here.

Message #16 received at 6509-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
To: 6509-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#6509: It's not obvious that landing page is an ordered,
	paginated list.
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:18:17 -0400

>>The "Summary" sections should probably make it clearer they only apply
>>to the bugs currently being displayed, not the total on all pages.

Implemented. I opened a separate bug summarizing the problems with
multi-page searches.

Message #19 received at 6509 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Karl Fogel <kfogel <at> red-bean.com>
To: 6509 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#6509: closed (Re: bug#6509: It's not obvious that landing
	page is an ordered, paginated list.)
Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:11:07 -0400

Likewise -- page is much clearer (at least to me) now.  Thank you very
much.

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