How to make .Forms stable…?

Unfortunately, I don’t think (but hope) that this posting will change things, but I have to write it (the hope dies last).

Today (2015-05-19), I personally have 25 filled bugs in Bugzilla

11 of the 25 filled bugs have still the state “New”, the oldest are from 2014-09-30 (that are almost 8 months now, what are ages in this environment).
This means (at least in theory), that these bugs are not have be seen by Xamarin but still are in in Bugzilla.

7 of filled bugs have the state “Conf”. But… what does this mean…?
Maybe they are fixed in the meantime..?
Maybe they will be fixed in one of the next versions..?
Maybe they never will be fixed..?

5 of the filled bugs has the state “Need”
I have added some of the “needed” information’s but the state don’t have changed…

1 of the filled bugs has the state “Reop”

If I query Bugzilla for .Forms, there are 543 Bugs showed:

• 121 with state “NEW”
• 243 with state “CONF”
• 6 with state “IN_P”
• 146 with state “NEED”
• 26 with state “REOP”
• 1 with state “ASSI”

I think (no, I know!) that many of the bugs are solved in the latest version but still “congest” Bugzilla and make it a pain to search for a still reported bug and have a look to the real actual state (which bugs are really still open).
This further makes a bad impression for every new developer (no, potential customer!) of Xamarin, if he have a look at bugzilla.
Xamarin (really) have the luck, that they have extremely patient (paying) customer that are willing to work for Xamarin for free (testing new versions on all platforms, filling bugs in Bugzilla, helping other members of the community in the forums). B.t.w.: without the help of the community in the forums it would be extremely hard (if not impossible) to be successful in developing with Xamarin.

But the customers (that’s us ) also want to see:

• A clear progress
• That their work is estimated by Xamarin (at least that the filled bugs are seen and stated in a meaningful time)
• A clear feedback from Xamarin to the bugs including which bugs are solved in new versions, remove solved bugs in Bugzilla (at least re-state as “Resolved”)

So… if Xamarin would do this and see their customers as “partners” the actual situation still can be changed to a real win-win-situation.

Therefore my suggestion (wishes) to Xamarin:

1. Define a base version to XF (suggestion: the next “stable” version)
2. Start to clean out Bugzilla:
3. Change the state of bugs to “Resolved”, if you are sure that they are resolved in the “base version”
4. Ask users (that have filled a bug) to check, if it still exists in the “base version” and change the state to “Resolved”, if the bug has gone - otherwise to add a comment “Bug still exists in “base version” (I’m willing to do this for my 25 filled bugs, if Xamarin would ask me for and I can see a progress)
5. Inform the users by every update, which bugs exactly should be solved in the new version (some of the bugs were mentioned in the past, but far not all)
6. Give more feedback in the threads to new versions. Some time ago, Jason has gave some more feedback (what was estimated from the community), but that has gone since about a month now)
7. Give us a “small outlook” (e.g. at least one time per month) what you are working on so that we don’t have to drive the road blind.

That’s my personal mindset…
If you have the same mindset… please vote here (so that we have a small chance that things are changed).

Thanks!