Separation of concerns in a bug tracker
a day ago
- Bug trackers often conflate facts (bugs exist) with plans (intentions to fix), causing confusion.
- Examples: Jira's 'Fix Version' mixes definite reality and hopes; two-tier status lumps 'Won't Fix' into 'Closed'.
- Using the bug list as the entire to-do list forces features to be represented as 'anti-bugs', leading to awkward fields.
- Proposal: Separate records into a 'facts' table (e.g., bug existence, commit fixes) and a 'plans' table (e.g., intentions, deadlines).
- Facts and plans can be linked but independently updated, allowing projects to omit planning entirely if desired.
- Feature requests should be pure plans until implemented, then become positive facts about presence.