Comments on: Why Tracking Bugs In Personal Projects Matters

By: Alexandr

Alexandr — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 22:58:15 +0000

TomBoy as software to keep notice, plans and bug reports – I sync it via ssh for all my computers. Sure I have different list for archived tasks for each project, build-in “link” functionality allow me easily make connections between notes.

and sure I use svn over ssh to track ALL my projects.

this cover my needs as developer. And hey, GPix and html2ps is opensource free software which is an good example how project leave under this simple environment supported by one developer.

By: Bath

Bath — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:17:30 +0000

I guess we’ll all agree with you.. As stephen related it, many tools are not scaled for a personal use.

Talking about FOSS, php, and lightweight, hosted-or-hackable : Could I mention indefero, a simplicity-oriented tool written in php. It likes both git, svn, hg.

A wonderful tool especially for a single dev, is fossil-scm. I do not have any experience with it but the concept is realy exciting. Personal and wiki, bugtracker, scm, in one binary, with a strong decentralized concept !

By: James

James — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:23:46 +0000

Very true. Every now and then I lapse out of organized bug tracking and get so frustrated that I end of tracking down every single bug and listing them all in a frenzy… and then I look at the milestone’s progress and go “awwwww…”

You definitely lose track of progress if you don’t have a tracker as an indicator.

RE: comments, currently using Trac ’cause it comes with my git/svn host.

By: JP

JP — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:00:18 +0000

If you are willing to install your own tracker on a machine you own, the usual suspects: trac, redmine, retrospectiva, …

You can also use github (public repositories are free, but you can use private also for a small fee each month), it gives you an issue tracker, wiki and git :)

Another one I wanted to check out is pivotal tracker, it looks pretty good. Actually, it’s not really a bug tracker but more a project management tool.

By: Hans

Hans — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:57:49 +0000

I agree, but would observe that you don’t actually /need/ a hosted solution. Specifically, using something like Mylyn for Eclipse accomplishes the basics of task management great (and does much more). Mylyn makes it easy to change to hosted options later too. But obviously any task manager would work … :)

By: Jamie

Jamie — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:49:27 +0000

I agree 110% that keeping up on personal projects through a project manager is a best practice. I use a custom one I wrote in Drupal to handle my personal stuff and clients. I’ve been slowly developing this for over a year now and it works great. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of JIRA or Trac, but for an independent developer it does everything I need, plus if I need more I can simple alter the code.

By: Stephen Cox

Stephen Cox — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:33:53 +0000

Most big tracking systems are way over kill for what I need for personal projects. I’d like something written in PHP, that’s lightweight and I can drop into any project.

By: Brandon Savage

Brandon Savage — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:07:24 +0000

Ben, I didn’t want to make a recommendation per se, to avoid looking like I was shilling for a particular system. But since you asked, I use Jira; I bought it with their $10 special because I’ve used it before, and I love it.

Part of why I want to write some of these tools in PHP and release them as open source is there seems to be a disconnect between awesome software like Jira and free software, in terms of quality. I think things ought to be awesome AND free; Jira’s license only allows you 10 users, and their next step up is $1,200 more.

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:31:25 +0000

Couldn’t agree more.

A bug tracker is a must have on every project, personal or not. I started a few personal projects, hacked away on them for 2-3 nights, made progress, couldn’t work on them for a couple of weeks and when I turned back to those projects, I didn’t know what was my first idea, what I wanted to achieve, what have I done already so one option was left – leave that project on the hard drive to collect the dust. I just couldn’t remember what was I doing. With a bug tracker (that has a wiki, milestones, tasks, bugs…) it’s so much easier.

By: Shaun Farrell

Shaun Farrell — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:28:23 +0000

Yes, it’s a great Idea! I do this with all my personal projects. Jira is good fo $10 but I have been using mantis with the mylyn connector for eclipse. the integration with svn and everything else is great!

I mainly use this as a reminder system. What features I need to develop and If I find something else I put it in the tracker. Keeps things going and this way I don’t forget features in the end.

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 08:49:39 +0000

Definitely a good idea – what bug tracker do you use?