Starter Bugs

Sun is pleased to provide a list of bugs to help you get started -- to "learn the ropes" -- for submitting bug fixes to Sun development engineering. The bugs presented on the starter bug list have been carefully selected by Sun engineering to meet all the following criteria: Sun will continue to add to this list over time, so please check back whenever you want more ideas.

Important: While we very much wish to incorporate the fixes we receive, sometimes it just isn't possible. There will come a point in time for each feature/component where we cannot risk even a slight impact to an otherwise stable working code-base (and this could occur months prior to the ship date). For that reason, expect Sun's acceptance criteria to become more stringent during the next few weeks and months as we move closer to Mustang's final release. We do, however, promise that an engineer will always review your submission, and that a serious effort will be made to incorporate your work (if possible), either in the current release, or in a later update release. We also promise that you'll hear back from us about what we'll do with your code, and why.

How it works

All you need to do is to examine the starter bug list, select a bug you'd like to fix and then get to work. While not required (i.e., you can fix any bugs you wish and submit them), Sun strongly encourages you to follow the steps described below to minimize confusion, improve community collaboration, and better integrate your work with Sun engineering. Please read on. . .

Claiming a starter bug

When choosing a bug to fix, you can eliminate potential duplication of effort and possibly get some help and comments from your peers in the community by starting a forum thread titled with the bug id on the dev forum in the jdk.collaboration project. By starting this thread you effectively "claim" the bug for fixing and let Sun and others know you are working on it. Note: To maintain compliance with the Java Research License for including source code in these threads, forum access requires that participants be logged onto java.net and have the jdk.researcher role. Please keep this in mind when providing links to the forum (i.e., it will ask people to log on first if they're not already).

Here is the recommended process for claiming a bug:

  1. Select a bug you'd like to work on from the starter bug list.
  2. Verify the bug has not already been claimed by searching through threads for that bug id on the dev forum in the jdk.collaboration project.
  3. If no thread exists, start one on the dev forum in the jdk.collaboration project with the exact name of the bug id to claim the bug. If another person has already claimed this bug (i.e., a forum thread exists with the same bug id), choose a different bug to fix or consider working with the claimant on this one.
  4. If you create a thread, please include the URL to the bug report in your first thread post (this URL can be found on the starter bug list). By including this URL, it makes it easy to check the current bug status.
  5. Use the forum to discuss ideas with the community, investigate means to attack the bug or enhancement, and/or provide your fix for comments before submitting it to Sun.
  6. When your fix is complete and ready to submit, please follow the instructions on the jdk.collaboration project page.

Collaborating with others on a bug fix

Sun encourages community members to work together on bug fixes. If a bug interests you, please express your thoughts and ideas about potential fixes on the appropriate thread. If you notice a thread has become dormant and would like to take it over, please contact the originator and ask about any plans for the fix. After claiming a starter bug, if you decide at some point that you no longer wish to work on a fix, please send a message to bugfix-forum@sun.com so we can release it for another developer to select. Sun engineering will do its best to monitor these forum threads; however, the purpose of the forum is for you to interact with the community of developers (including Sun engineers). If you have a specific question or comment for Sun or if a problem or issue has developed that we've somehow missed on the forum, please sign up to the mailing list in the jdk.collaboration project and post it there.

Choosing other bugs to fix

You are by no means constrained to the starter bug list for fixing bugs or providing enhancements. If you choose to work on any bug or enhancement, please follow a similar process:
  1. Select a bug you'd like to work on from the web bug list.
  2. If the bug or enhancement you wish to work on does not currently exist on the web bug list, please submit your bug or enhancement to bugs.sun.com. You can begin work on the fix but watch the web bug list for your bug/enhancement to be posted so you can proceed with the following steps.
  3. Verify that that bug has not already been started by someone else by searching through threads for that bug id on the dev forum in the jdk.collaboration project.
  4. If no thread exists, start one on the dev forum in the jdk.collaboration project with the exact name of the bug id to let others know you're working on it. If another person has already begun work on this bug, consider collaborating on the fix or choose something else.
  5. If you create a thread, please include the URL to the bug report in your first thread post (this URL can be found by finding the bug on the web bug list). By including this URL, it makes it easy to check the current bug status.
  6. Use the forum to discuss ideas with the community, investigate means to attack the bug or enhancement, and/or provide your fix for comments before submitting it to Sun.
  7. When your fix is complete and ready to submit, please follow the instructions on the jdk.collaboration project page.