GNU bug report logs - #78864
Support for bookmarks in debbugs.el

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

From: Michael Albinus <michael.albinus <at> gmx.de>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: Support for bookmarks in debbugs.el
Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2025 19:37:04 +0200

Matthias Meulien <orontee <at> gmail.com> writes:

> Hi Michael,

Hi Matthias,

> First, sorry for not posting directly to a bug report mailing list but
> I am not used to report for ELPA  hosted packages and failed to find
> the mail address where to report bugs for debbugs.el.  I just show
> that you're the package maintainer. Please tell me whether there's a
> better place to post what follows, and I'll do it.

GNU ELPA packages are regarded as part of Emacs. 'M-x report-emacs-bug'
is perfect for them.

I'm sending my reply to <bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org> in order to get a bug number.

> Here's my point.  For people (like me!) that haven't subscribed to
> emacs bug mailing list (frightened by its traffic for example) it's
> difficult to follow a bug report.  From time to time, I found myself
> searching my memory for that bug number I contributed to but never saw
> what happened since then, etc.
>
> Attached is a patch adding support for bookmarks in Debbugs buffers. 
> I am not a heavy user of the package so I am not sure this patch
> covers the most frequent use cases. But its able to save and restore
> simple queries.
>
> Tell me whether you're interested in this feature, if there are
> changes I should apply to the patch, etc.

It looks interesting. Personally, I'm not a user of bookmark.el, so I
have no clear view whether we need it in parallel to the tagging of bugs
in debbugs. See the commands `debbugs-gnu-toggle-tag' and
`debbugs-gnu-toggle-mark', which offer a kind of internal bookmarking.

But I won't object if I understand the additional benefit.

In case we continue to work on this, I propose to add the code into an
additional file debbugs-bookmark.el. And we need some doc in debbugs-ug.texi.

> Thanks a lot for your time and work on Emacs.
>
> Regards,
> -- 
> Matthias

Best regards, Michael.

Message #10 received at 78864 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Matthias Meulien <orontee <at> gmail.com>
To: Michael Albinus <michael.albinus <at> gmx.de>
Cc: 78864 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#78864: Support for bookmarks in debbugs.el
Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2025 19:58:25 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Le dim. 22 juin 2025, 19:38, Michael Albinus <michael.albinus <at> gmx.de> a
écrit :

> Matthias Meulien <orontee <at> gmail.com> writes:
>
> > Hi Michael,
>
> Hi Matthias,
>
> > First, sorry for not posting directly to a bug report mailing list but
> > I am not used to report for ELPA  hosted packages and failed to find
> > the mail address where to report bugs for debbugs.el.  I just show
> > that you're the package maintainer. Please tell me whether there's a
> > better place to post what follows, and I'll do it.
>
> GNU ELPA packages are regarded as part of Emacs. 'M-x report-emacs-bug'
> is perfect for them.
>
> I'm sending my reply to <bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org> in order to get a bug
> number.
>

Thank you!

> Here's my point.  For people (like me!) that haven't subscribed to
> > emacs bug mailing list (frightened by its traffic for example) it's
> > difficult to follow a bug report.  From time to time, I found myself
> > searching my memory for that bug number I contributed to but never saw
> > what happened since then, etc.
> >
> > Attached is a patch adding support for bookmarks in Debbugs buffers.
> > I am not a heavy user of the package so I am not sure this patch
> > covers the most frequent use cases. But its able to save and restore
> > simple queries.
> >
> > Tell me whether you're interested in this feature, if there are
> > changes I should apply to the patch, etc.
>
> It looks interesting. Personally, I'm not a user of bookmark.el, so I
> have no clear view whether we need it in parallel to the tagging of bugs
> in debbugs. See the commands `debbugs-gnu-toggle-tag' and
> `debbugs-gnu-toggle-mark', which offer a kind of internal bookmarking.
>


I wasn't aware of that. I'll read a out those.

But I won't object if I understand the additional benefit.
>

Not clear to me at this point. Give me time to try what you recommended. I
suspect that we'll just close the bug.


> In case we continue to work on this, I propose to add the code into an
> additional file debbugs-bookmark.el. And we need some doc in
> debbugs-ug.texi.
>

Right.

Regards,
Matthias

>

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #13 received at 78864 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Matthias Meulien <orontee <at> gmail.com>
To: Michael Albinus <michael.albinus <at> gmx.de>
Cc: 78864 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#78864: Support for bookmarks in debbugs.el
Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2025 21:06:36 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

> It looks interesting. Personally, I'm not a user of bookmark.el, so I
>> have no clear view whether we need it in parallel to the tagging of bugs
>> in debbugs. See the commands `debbugs-gnu-toggle-tag' and
>> `debbugs-gnu-toggle-mark', which offer a kind of internal bookmarking.
>>
>
>
> I wasn't aware of that. I'll read a out those.
>
> But I won't object if I understand the additional benefit.
>>
>
> Not clear to me at this point. Give me time to try what you recommended. I
> suspect that we'll just close the bug.
>

I read the Tabulated Lists node of the manual and learn what tag and mark
means in the context of Debbugs.  I tried both features.

One interest of bookmarks is that it uses a single interface whatever the
handler and major mode is: You learn them once.

Another interest is that they're centralized.  Thus when visiting the
bookmark menu, where I have among others a bookmarks to "Emacs sources"
handled by `vc-dir' and a bookmark to "Search results for "emacs" - explain
xkcd" handled by EWW, I could also have a bookmark for "Emacs Bug #78864"
handled by Debbugs.

But my feeling is that it's not worth introducing bookmarks in
debbugs-gnu.el: It'd add confusion for little gain.

On my side I may find time to follow your suggestion and rework my patch in
a separate file, so I can eventually continue using bookmarks to track
bugs.  If it happens, I'll share the result and see whether other people
are interested (I doubt).

Feel free to close that bug.

Regards,
-- 
Matthias

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Message #16 received at 78864 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Matthias Meulien <orontee <at> gmail.com>
To: Michael Albinus <michael.albinus <at> gmx.de>
Cc: 78864 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#78864: Support for bookmarks in debbugs.el
Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2025 21:08:54 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Just realized that another interest of using bookmarks would be to store
queries not search results.  No serious impact on what I previously wrote.

Le dim. 22 juin 2025 à 21:06, Matthias Meulien <orontee <at> gmail.com> a écrit :

> It looks interesting. Personally, I'm not a user of bookmark.el, so I
>>> have no clear view whether we need it in parallel to the tagging of bugs
>>> in debbugs. See the commands `debbugs-gnu-toggle-tag' and
>>> `debbugs-gnu-toggle-mark', which offer a kind of internal bookmarking.
>>>
>>
>>
>> I wasn't aware of that. I'll read a out those.
>>
>> But I won't object if I understand the additional benefit.
>>>
>>
>> Not clear to me at this point. Give me time to try what you recommended.
>> I suspect that we'll just close the bug.
>>
>
> I read the Tabulated Lists node of the manual and learn what tag and mark
> means in the context of Debbugs.  I tried both features.
>
> One interest of bookmarks is that it uses a single interface whatever the
> handler and major mode is: You learn them once.
>
> Another interest is that they're centralized.  Thus when visiting the
> bookmark menu, where I have among others a bookmarks to "Emacs sources"
> handled by `vc-dir' and a bookmark to "Search results for "emacs" - explain
> xkcd" handled by EWW, I could also have a bookmark for "Emacs Bug #78864"
> handled by Debbugs.
>
> But my feeling is that it's not worth introducing bookmarks in
> debbugs-gnu.el: It'd add confusion for little gain.
>
> On my side I may find time to follow your suggestion and rework my patch
> in a separate file, so I can eventually continue using bookmarks to track
> bugs.  If it happens, I'll share the result and see whether other people
> are interested (I doubt).
>
> Feel free to close that bug.
>
> Regards,
> --
> Matthias
>


-- 
Matthias

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Message #19 received at 78864 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Stéphane Marks <shipmints <at> gmail.com>
To: Matthias Meulien <orontee <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 78864 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Michael Albinus <michael.albinus <at> gmx.de>
Subject: Re: bug#78864: Support for bookmarks in debbugs.el
Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2025 15:20:06 -0400

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On Sun, Jun 22, 2025 at 3:10 PM Matthias Meulien <orontee <at> gmail.com> wrote:

> Just realized that another interest of using bookmarks would be to store
> queries not search results.  No serious impact on what I previously wrote.
>
> Le dim. 22 juin 2025 à 21:06, Matthias Meulien <orontee <at> gmail.com> a
> écrit :
>
>> It looks interesting. Personally, I'm not a user of bookmark.el, so I
>>>> have no clear view whether we need it in parallel to the tagging of bugs
>>>> in debbugs. See the commands `debbugs-gnu-toggle-tag' and
>>>> `debbugs-gnu-toggle-mark', which offer a kind of internal bookmarking.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I wasn't aware of that. I'll read a out those.
>>>
>>> But I won't object if I understand the additional benefit.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Not clear to me at this point. Give me time to try what you recommended.
>>> I suspect that we'll just close the bug.
>>>
>>
>> I read the Tabulated Lists node of the manual and learn what tag and mark
>> means in the context of Debbugs.  I tried both features.
>>
>> One interest of bookmarks is that it uses a single interface whatever the
>> handler and major mode is: You learn them once.
>>
>> Another interest is that they're centralized.  Thus when visiting the
>> bookmark menu, where I have among others a bookmarks to "Emacs sources"
>> handled by `vc-dir' and a bookmark to "Search results for "emacs" - explain
>> xkcd" handled by EWW, I could also have a bookmark for "Emacs Bug #78864"
>> handled by Debbugs.
>>
>> But my feeling is that it's not worth introducing bookmarks in
>> debbugs-gnu.el: It'd add confusion for little gain.
>>
>> On my side I may find time to follow your suggestion and rework my patch
>> in a separate file, so I can eventually continue using bookmarks to track
>> bugs.  If it happens, I'll share the result and see whether other people
>> are interested (I doubt).
>>
>> Feel free to close that bug.
>>
>
You can also do this using the debbugs web site
https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/pkgreport.cgi?submitter=shipmints%40gmail.com and
replace my email address with your own (or someone else's).  That you can
bookmark using `eww` or an external web browser.

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #22 received at 78864 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Michael Albinus <michael.albinus <at> gmx.de>
To: Stéphane Marks <shipmints <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 78864 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Matthias Meulien <orontee <at> gmail.com>
Subject: Re: bug#78864: Support for bookmarks in debbugs.el
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2025 08:56:33 +0200

Stéphane Marks <shipmints <at> gmail.com> writes:

Hi Stéphane,

>         Another interest is that they're centralized.  Thus when
>         visiting the bookmark menu, where I have among others a
>         bookmarks to "Emacs sources" handled by `vc-dir' and a
>         bookmark to "Search results for "emacs" - explain xkcd"
>         handled by EWW, I could also have a bookmark for "Emacs Bug
>         #78864" handled by Debbugs.
>
>         On my side I may find time to follow your suggestion and
>         rework my patch in a separate file, so I can eventually
>         continue using bookmarks to track bugs.  If it happens, I'll
>         share the result and see whether other people are interested
>         (I doubt). 
>
> You can also do this using the debbugs web site
> https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/pkgreport.cgi?submitter=shipmints%40gmail.com
> and replace my email address with your own (or someone else's).  That
> you can bookmark using `eww` or an external web browser.

Anything goes, of course. But the idea of the debbugs package is to
avoid the web interface, and to offer a better integration with Emacs
workflows. Once you have opened a bookmark with respective bugs, you
want to work on them, like sending a message, applying a patch,
whatever. This doesn't go smoothly with a web page in eww.

So if we want to support bookmarks with the debbugs package, Matthias'
approach seems to be OK.

Best regards, Michael.

Message #25 received at 78864 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Michael Albinus <michael.albinus <at> gmx.de>
To: Matthias Meulien <orontee <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 78864 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#78864: Support for bookmarks in debbugs.el
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2025 09:00:01 +0200

Matthias Meulien <orontee <at> gmail.com> writes:

Hi Matthias,

> Just realized that another interest of using bookmarks would be to
> store queries not search results.

This is a remarkable benefit over debbugs' tags and marks, indeed. So
pls continue your work.

> Regards,
> -- 
> Matthias

Best regards, Michael.

Message #28 received at 78864 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Matthias Meulien <orontee <at> gmail.com>
To: Michael Albinus <michael.albinus <at> gmx.de>
Cc: 78864 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#78864: Support for bookmarks in debbugs.el
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2025 23:20:01 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Le lun. 23 juin 2025 à 09:00, Michael Albinus <michael.albinus <at> gmx.de> a
écrit :

> Matthias Meulien <orontee <at> gmail.com> writes:
>
> Hi Matthias,
>
> > Just realized that another interest of using bookmarks would be to
> > store queries not search results.
>
> This is a remarkable benefit over debbugs' tags and marks, indeed. So
> pls continue your work.
>

Spent some time testing this evening and in fact it already sort of work.

See:

M-x debbugs-gnu-search
bookmark RET
subject RET
bookmark RET
date RET
2025-01-01 RET
2025-12-31 RET
status RET
pending RET
RET

Then M-x debbugs-gnu-show-last-result and C-x r m (bookmark-set) Emacs bugs
(pending) about "bookmark" (2025) RET. And a bookmark is saved with the
parameters:

 (debbugs-gnu-current-filter
  (pending . "pending"))
 (debbugs-gnu-current-query
  (subject . "bookmark")
  (@cdate 1735686000 . 1767135600)
  (phrase . "bookmark"))

 No bug id saved.

Works also with submitter key but had to edit the bookmark by hand since I
didn't find a way to generate the correct search using debbugs commands.

I'll try to improve the default bookmark name in order to take phrase and
subject into account (right now only bugs and package keys are used to
build the bookmark name).

Open to any improvement you have in mind.

Regards,
-- 
Matthias

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #31 received at 78864 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Michael Albinus <michael.albinus <at> gmx.de>
To: Matthias Meulien <orontee <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 78864 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#78864: Support for bookmarks in debbugs.el
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2025 12:18:12 +0200

Matthias Meulien <orontee <at> gmail.com> writes:

Hi Matthias,

> Spent some time testing this evening and in fact it already sort of
> work. 
>
> See:
>
> M-x debbugs-gnu-search
> bookmark RET
> subject RET
> bookmark RET
> date RET
> 2025-01-01 RET
> 2025-12-31 RET
> status RET
> pending RET
> RET
>
> Then M-x debbugs-gnu-show-last-result and C-x r m (bookmark-set) Emacs
> bugs (pending) about "bookmark" (2025) RET. And a bookmark is saved
> with the parameters: 
>
>  (debbugs-gnu-current-filter
>   (pending . "pending"))
>  (debbugs-gnu-current-query
>   (subject . "bookmark")
>   (@cdate 1735686000 . 1767135600)
>   (phrase . "bookmark"))
>
>  No bug id saved.

This is fine. What might be problematic is an entry like this:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
  (front-context-string . "78730 normal    ")
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

This might not be valid next time the bookmark is used. Better to avoid it.

> Works also with submitter key but had to edit the bookmark by hand
> since I didn't find a way to generate the correct search using debbugs
> commands.

debbugs-gnu-search offers you two different set of attributes, depending
whether you have a phrase, or not. This is because not all attributes
could be used together with a phrase search.

If you just want to see all bugs you have submitted, apply with an empty phrase

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
M-x debbugs-gnu-search RET
RET
submitter RET
me RET
RET
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

> Open to any improvement you have in mind.

Nothing ATM. Pls send the patch, we will see then how it works. Perhaps
there's also feedback from other users.

> Regards,

Best regards, Michael.

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