How important is a bug tracking tool for a lone de

Question

This might be a stupid question, but if I'm a lone developer and only ever going to be working off of my development laptop, how important is using bug tracking software? I am currently debating between using Subversion or SourceGear Vault as my VCS of choice, and SourceGear has an integrated bug tracker (Fortress) while the Subversion world tends to use something like Trac.

Now, I am going to use my laptop for both home and work projects (I have an MSDN subscription for myself, and seeing as work is too cheap to buy me anything I'm going to write their software on my laptop to use it; we have this specified in my contract that I own all the code I write as though I was a consultant, although I'm an FTE), and at work I'm going to set up Subversion since it's free and there's no budget (so I guess that means I should be using SVN at home too). A bug tracker might be beneficial at work to keep track of things once the software is done, but what about for personal use?

Remember, my laptop is only going to be for development, so I'm afraid if I put SVN on it (gotta keep that repo separate from work's, after all) and then Trac or something else, I'm going to be turning it into a mini-server, or is that a good thing? And I haven't even looked into a CI solution yet, but honestly I do not see the point of CI if you're only going to be using a single machine. That might change for the future, but for right now all my work is going to be done on this one laptop.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

I think you should go with FogBugz. It's online, free for 2 developers, it integrates with your source control. I think bugtracking is second to source control in terms of project management especially for a single developer. You need to be able to tell when you've fixed all the reported bugs so you can predict a ship date on a feature etc etc..

An automated build process will take a huge burden off of you to be able to create your software on demand (in case of deletions etc). A CI process may be a little overkill but automated builds rule.

If you're worried about putting it on your laptop but still want to roll your own you can go to slicehost and get an ubuntu box for a subversion/trac solution online for 20 bucks a month. I do this for some of my personal projects...

Answer 2

You should take a look at Fossil. It's a modern distributed (Open Source) version control system that runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac. It also has a integrated Bug Tracker and Wiki. It was created by Dr. D. Richard Hipp, the same guy who created SQLite. And, in fact, it utilizes SQLite as the underlying storage system for the version control system, bug tracker, and Wiki.

Fossil was specifically designed to meet the needs of the small development team or individual developer, and it does an excellent job. However, depending on the specifics, it can also work pretty well for a larger development team (for example, it is being used for SQLite's developement).

(I know this is an old question, but I came across Fossil about six months ago, and have become a big fan of it (coming from CVS -> SVN -> Hg -> Bzr -> Git over the past 15 years) for my own work, and for the team at work.)

Answer 3

I would agree with JPunyon that you should use Fogbugz for bug tracking. I use if for my personal stuff and it is brilliant. While a bug tracker is not essential (though useful) if you are on your own, Source Code Control is essential. My product of choice is now Perforce which provides a fully functional 2 user copy you can download and use. It takes up very little resource and is easily tranferable when you upgrade machines. Theres a bit of a learning curve, but its worth it.

Answer 4

If you develop on your laptop, you probably work offline often (I do). Consider using bug tracker which doesn't require internet connection to operate. You may check Artifacts - simple, works offline and has Visual Studio integration.

Answer 5

You might want to consider an online repository and/or tracker/planner in addition to your local one. It's another stage of risk management and if, in the future, someone else joins your team, you can scale up just by granting them access.

Some options:

Source Control (Online):

• Assembla - Public source is free, private repositories are paid
• Source Forge - Open source only
• Google Code - Open source only
• Git Hub - Public source is free, private repositories are paid
• Bit Bucket - Unlimited private repos with up to 5 contributors, or 8 if you invite friends

Bug Tracking/Project Management

• LightHouse - Unlimited open source, paid private projects
• FogBugz - Full version is free for up to two developers
• BaseCamp - Paid only
• Trac - Not hosted (although Assembla hosts it), open source - Python
• Bugzilla - Not hosted, open source - Perl
• Mantis - Not hosted, open source - PHP

Answer 6

Subversion and Trac don't take up very much of your system resources especially when they're just sitting there waiting for you to use them.

I'm working on a small project, just 2 full-time developers, but I find I use our bug tracking software (Jira in our case, similar to Bugzilla), even just to keep track of my own bugs and issues. Easier than trying to remember the details of a bug when you get time to work on it later, and there's a very satisfying feeling to checking off issues after you've resolved them.

I'd stick with something simple in your case, even just a dedicated to-do task list in Outlook would probably suffice if you don't want to spend too much development time setting up a dedicated system. The important thing is to have a way to know for sure you've solved all of the bugs that were reported.