Re: [WWdevel] Fwd: UMM_math2111_tuba --reporting bugs in problems

[John J. <jj...@as...>]

Hi,

In thinking about the suggestions, first is if someone clicks Save As 
for a problem which is currently in a set.  The problem editor knows if 
it is looking at a problem because it is problem n of set X.  So, it 
would not be too hard to introduce a mechanism for people to specify 
that they want the copy to replace the original as the file for this 
problem.  This could be done as a javascript pop-up, or by adding a 
checkbox to the interface in PGProblemEditor.  Either way, I can see 
this as being generally useful.

A second suggestion is to have a mechanism to set all attempt numbers to 
0 for an individual problem.  I don't think that would be used so often 
since most webwork problems are probably used with unlimited attempts.

Finally, there is the mechanism for reporting bugs in problems.  I 
handle e-mails of this sort all the time.  Surprisingly, the best bug 
reports for problems only have a couple of lines: which problem it is, 
what seed causes the problem, and a sentence as to why it is wrong.  
Except in very rare cases, saying more wastes time for all parties.

So, to make it easier for people to send bug reports on problems, maybe 
there could be a button at the bottom of PGProblemEditor for just this 
purpose.  The reporter would have to somehow type the sentence saying 
why the problem is wrong, but webwork knows the path to the problem 
being looked at, and it knows the current seed.  Webwork even knows the 
name and probably the e-mail address of the person reporting the bug.  
So, almost all of the information needed for the bug report could be 
supplied by webwork.

It would be nice if the reports went directly into bugzilla, but it 
would be ok with me if the reports worked something like feedback 
e-mails - just a short description of the error had to be typed, webwork 
then appends the rest of the information and e-mails it to a generic 
address (database_problems-bugs@...) which ultimately comes to me.  
Naturally, the special button for doing this should only appear if the 
path to the problem starts Library/ since I don't plan on debugging 
everyone's webwork problems.

By any chance, does bugzilla have a mechanism for accepting bug reports 
sent via e-mail?  If webwork itself generates the e-mail, it could 
format the first few lines with special information needed to enter the 
bug.  Then, we could have both ease of use and automatic tracking of 
bugs by bugzilla.

John



Michael Gage wrote:

> here are some suggestions from Imre Tuba about simplifying the 
> reporting of bugs in problems.
>
> Take care,
>
> mike
>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> *From: *Imre Tuba <it...@mo... <mailto:it...@mo...>>
>> *Date: *October 19, 2005 1:06:56 PM EDT
>> *To: *Michael Gage <ga...@ma... 
>> <mailto:ga...@ma...>>
>> *Subject: **Re: Fwd: UMM_math2111_tuba --things should be fixed now*
>>
>>
>>> Thanks for the info on isolating the problem.  We have it fixed for now.
>>> The change we made in the CSS file was supposed to reduce the number 
>>> of problems listed in the left margin, once that list
>>> got big.  Apparently some browsers can't handle that CSS code.
>>> We'll try something else.
>>>
>>
>> Thanks. Also thanks for simplifying the procedure of replacing broken 
>> library problems with corrected local copies.
>>
>> Here is another suggestion along these lines. Bugs in problems are 
>> typically discovered by students. When a bug is discovered I usually 
>> have to
>>
>> 1. Investigate the problem and see if I can fix it. I usually can.
>>
>> 2. Fix the problem, make a local copy of the file, and replace the 
>> broken problem in the homework set with the local copy.
>>
>> 3. If the problem allowed limited attempts, I need to give students 
>> some extra attempts. I can do this individually for each student, 
>> which is painful. Or I can just increase the number of attempts 
>> allowed for everyone. This is not fair because those students that 
>> have not attempted the problem benefit more than those who have 
>> wasted some of their attempts in diagnosing the problem. It would be 
>> better if the attempt counters could all be reset to 0.
>>
>> 4. I need to notify the students that there was a mistake.
>>
>> 5. I need to file a bug report on bugzilla.
>>
>> Overall, this is a very time consuming process. As mistakes in the 
>> library files are rather common, I've had to go through it many times 
>> this semester. I wish it could be streamlined. Adding the new option 
>> to edit the library file, save a local copy, and replace the problem 
>> in the set with the local copy greatly reduced the workload in 2. 
>> Simplifying the filing of bug reports would be great. The bugzilla 
>> forms are long and awkward, and really do not encourage people to 
>> file bug reports. It would be much easier if there was a button on 
>> the problem edit page which could be clicked to file a bug report, 
>> where a commment can quickly be entered and a corrected source file 
>> can be attached. I am convinced this would greatly speed up the 
>> process of weeding the bugs out of the library problems.
>> -- 
>>     Imre
>>
>>
>