Porting/todo.pod: Add tasks

This requests people to volunteer to

1) classify type unknown bug tickets

2) investigate new tickets, classify them, and get TODO tests from the
originator

3) add TODO tests to old tickets

diff --git a/Porting/todo.pod b/Porting/todo.pod
index 0b617d3..eaf4fc0 100644 (file)
--- a/Porting/todo.pod
+++ b/Porting/todo.pod
@@ -39,6 +39,28 @@ documentation.  This would be a good way to learn more about Perl.
 
 =head1 Tasks that only need Perl knowledge
 
+=head2 Classify bug tickets by type
+
+Known bugs in Perl are tracked by L<https://rt.perl.org/rt3> (which also
+includes Perl 6).  A summary can be found at
+L<https://rt.perl.org/rt3/NoAuth/perl5/Overview.html>.
+It shows bugs classified by "type".  However, the type of many of the
+bugs is "unknown".  This greatly lowers the chances of them getting
+fixed, as the number of open bugs is overwhelming -- too many to wade
+through for someone to try to find the bugs in the parts of
+Perl that s/he knows well enough to try to fix.  This task involves
+going through these bugs and classifying them into one or more types.
+
+=head2 Ongoing: investigate new bug reports
+
+When a bug report is filed, it would be very helpful to have someone do
+a quick investigation to see if it is a real problem, and to reply to
+the poster about it, asking for example code that reproduces the
+problem.  Such code should be added to the test suite as TODO tests, and
+the ticket should be classified by type.  To get started on this task,
+look at the tickets that are marked as "New Issues" in
+L<https://rt.perl.org/rt3/NoAuth/perl5/Overview.html>.
+
 =head2 Migrate t/ from custom TAP generation
 
 Many tests below F<t/> still generate TAP by "hand", rather than using library
@@ -172,6 +194,12 @@ whole category.
 Many diagnostic messages are not currently documented.  The list is at the end
 of t/porting/diag.t.
 
+=head2 Write TODO tests for open bugs
+
+Sometimes bugs get fixed as a side effect of something else, and
+the bug remains open because no one realizes that it has been fixed.
+Ideally, every open bug should have a TODO test in the core test suite.
+
 =head1 Tasks that need a little sysadmin-type knowledge
 
 Or if you prefer, tasks that you would learn from, and broaden your skills