Bug in mring.lisp? was: Need help with Maxima (please help)

Robert Dodier wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 9:59 AM, Leo Butler <l.butler at ed.ac.uk> wrote:
>
>   
>> Thanks, Robert. Since Barton wrote the relevant code, I'd like his
>> approval, in case I've missed something important.
>>     
>
> I don't really think it's important to get someone else's approval.
> If you can show you've fixed a bug (via a test case) then go ahead
> and commit it. Maxima has many authors and it's mostly not worth
> the trouble to figure out who's in charge of some piece or another.
>   
which is why I have repeatedly suggested that people sign and date their 
changes in the code.

If the author is easy to identify, it is much less trouble to ask for 
approval of some sort.
I have encountered changes to code that someone thought would
fix a bug only to find the programmer had (a) mistaken a bug for a 
feature  or (b) broken something else
in the process.  and (c) not checked it by any who cared to advise on 
it.  I hope I myself have
not done this too often :).


> In the event that someone who could be identified as "the author"
> of some bit, let them change deal with it after the fact; we have
> more to lose by waiting for approval to change things.
>   
I think I disagree here...  Except for trivial fixes to obvious bugs, it 
doesn't seem
like good advice.  And even if you think that what you have is a trivial 
fix, you
 may have made a  mis-diagnosis and introduced errors.
> Incidentally, if you are indeed seeking someone's approval,
> you really need to be more explicit about it. I wouldn't have
> guessed from your original message that you were hoping
> for approval from someone.
>
> FWIW
>
> Robert Dodier
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