Request for help: 6.6.1 bugs

[Simon Peyton-Jones]

| -----Original Message-----
| From: Simon Marlow
| Sent: 02 February 2007 09:54
|
| We're focussed on getting 6.6.1 out of the door at the moment.  We still have 61
| open tickets though, so this message is a plea for help: if you have some time
| to spare, and would like to help out, please get involved!

Just to reinforce what Simon's message said....  We think that the reason GHC 6.6.1 has such a lot of open bugs is not because quality has fallen, but rather because more and more people are using GHC, in more and more interesting ways.

That's good news.  And hopefully it also means that there are more and more people who are well-qualified to help find and fix these corner cases.  GHC is not our compiler, it's *your* compiler.  The more you join in and help us, the better GHC will become.

This is quite important, because what may seem like a corner case to us can be a show-stopper for the person who trips over it; and if that happens too much, they just switch languages.  61 open bugs is 61 too many.

So do please lend us a hand.  Even characterising a bug, narrowing down just what the problem is, can be a huge help.  Simon and I and Ian, and others, are ready to help with specific information, the Commentary is an increasingly useful resource.  (Please to add material there too, as you find it out.)

Thanks; and a big thank-you to those who have already contributed.

Simon


PS: even if you are looking at a 6.6.1 bug, the usual place to start is with the HEAD; fix and patch the HEAD, and Ian will merge the patch to the branch.  Only if the bug is branch-specific should you work on the branch.  See http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/ghc/wiki/WorkingConventions