If you are not a cvs guru, keeping up with improvements is quite a hassel. I either get the latest buggy release, or download the sometimes broken HEAD.
I seem to stumble over myself every time I try to checkout something, or submit a patch.
I'm never quite sure what there is to checkout and I can't ever locate instructions for doing so. Usually I hunt through the forum archives to locate my last 'call for help with cvs' thread.
Then there is some kind of cvs browse thing setup somewhere. But it isn't really working, or at least it wasn't the last time I tried. I'm not complaining (or am I) but the non-dedicated developer or absent minded types have limited options.
Without a dedicated "Patch Tzar" to go with the "Bug Tzar", I fear the situation will remain about the same. Anyway the easiest "Patch Tzar" is probably cvsweb, no?
I'm not sure there is necessarily a need to file a bug report when you fix a bug that no one else has noticed. As someone who runs into other developers bugs quite often, I can swear that you have to track it down yourself anyway, at least to the file. Then you could look at a recent version (assuming we had cvsweb, or you were a cvs guru). Or you could just fix it yourself, but sometimes you might consult the forums first to see what others think about the problem.
It might be nice to notify package owners when any change is made. Once someone changed the one line of code I contributed to OpenACS. Turns out a bug was introduced, and I found it and fixed it.
