bugs.php.net like prompts

[Jack Tanner]

Zbigniew Braniecki wrote:
> So i decided to fill a bug. After filling it, i clicked "submit bug", 
> but instead of sending it, bugs.php.net displayed a list of possible 
> matching problems with description,status and question if i'm sure it's 
> not any of following. If not, i can click "submit" once more, to really 
> submit it into database. Of course the bug was there and I did not send 
> one more dupe.

This is an extremely good idea.

One approach is to use plain text information retrieval techniques, 
e.g., 
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Software/Information_Retrieval/Fulltext/?tc=1.

Another approach is to use a Nearest Neighbor algorithm, since 
Bugzilla's database schema contains quite a few features that correspond 
to attribute-value pairs.

Even better would be to search for similar problems even as the user is 
filling out the duplicate bug, thus saving the user time and effort. 
This is known as mixed-initiative case-based reasoning and query 
formulation, and there was recently a workshop on this subject: 
http://www.aic.nrl.navy.mil/~aha/iccbr03-micbrw/.

-JT