As to when a bug gets fixed, that is very complex. Developers have a lot of things to balance and prioritize between, and we do our best. There will be no perfect list of priorities, because every user will see the importance of a bug differently, but we do what we can. The kinds of things that have to be factored in are
- Bugs that we found ourselves, even ones that users have never experienced
- Bugs that users report to us, which may be ones we have never experienced despite our best efforts to test as many possible cases as we can
- New features that we think users will find useful, whether or not they requested them
- New features that users have requested, whether or not we thought of them too
- How many people does the bug effect? Just 1, a small subset that use a particular version of the host software, or a subset of a particular hardware configuration? Or only within a particular unique set of steps? Or lots of people?
- How often will people run into the bug? Is it a workflow that they might use once every 6 months, or 10 times a day? Is it only a small group of people who would use it 10 times a day, and other users will never need it?
- How critical is the bug? Is there a workaround which, while inconvenient, gets most or some of that functionality up and running? Does it make certain things impossible, but they'd only be needed rarely, or would they be needed 10 times a day? Is it a crash, or loss of scene?
- Is the bug in our code, or in the host software?
- Is the bug easy to fix, or complicated?
- Does the required fix stand in isolation in the code so won't interact/interfere with other parts of the code, or does it have the potential to break other things?
- If the bug is in the host software, is it even possible to fix it? Maybe the host software doesn't expose the data we need for the fix, maybe it doesn't offer the required functionality. If we can fix it, is the fix such a complex and risky solution to get around the host software limitation that it might break other things, so we simply can't take that chance?
- Be bug reporters too: our developers have to report bugs to the host software developers, as we are users too in that regard :)
And then bear in mind that this list changes every single day, as new bugs are uncovered by us or users.
(sheesh, I am glad I am not a developer! ;) )
So, we do try hard and do our best at what is an enormously complex task. If a bug remains for a long time (and some do), it's not because we don't care, or didn't listen, it's because of the ever-shifting balances of priorities that we have to manage.
Thanks!
Tom