Why Trac sucks

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Reasons to use Trac:

  • It has been around for ages so it's pretty well known.
  • It works with Subversion.
  • Built-in Wiki.
  • The milestones system works fairly well.

Why Trac sucks, IMHO of course:

  • It's written in Python, a language I currently don't know nor have a (current) inclination to learn.
  • It doesn't do git without a plugin.
  • How do I get email notifications when something's changed in the wiki?
  • How do I get email notifications when code changes are uploaded?
  • Each project you want to manage with it gets its own separate install, which is very klunky. You have to log into each one separately (unless you set up a shared authentication system of some sort in the web server).
  • Each project only gets one repository.
  • The interface is klunky, e.g. clicking View Tickets brings you to a page where you first have to choose your filter rather than just loading the last one used or a default.
  • No task associations so you can't do a parent-child dependency to indicate a completion hierarchy.
  • The interface should allow for trag-n-drop changing of priorities.
  • It isn't github or unfuddle or Redmine :)

Personally I recommend github for public projects where you don't need task management (I don't like Lighthouse), Unfuddle for closed projects or where you want good task management for your open project, or Redmine if you want full control and to host it all yourself.

Just thought I'd share that.

6 Comments

Not specifically. I like

Not specifically. I like Subversion for certain things, e.g. it's easier to work with for many things, I just prefer git overall. Same with recommending three different project management tools, I find each has their own benefits, they just each far outshine Trac.

Bensan, Actually due to the

Bensan,

Actually due to the problems with git-svn on Windows, unless if you have developers still on Windows and can't whole-hog migrate to git, it's best to stick with Subversion anyway as the git-svn tools on Windows just suck. I honestly don't think they won't stop being full of suck until either they're all written in C, which I don't think is going to happen.

# It’s written in Python, a

# It’s written in Python, a language I currently don’t know nor have a (current) inclination to learn. - That's not a real reason, but Python is cool, give it a try.

# It doesn’t do git without a plugin. - So what? A lot of open source software extends with plugins and that's a good thing.

# How do I get email notifications when something’s changed in the wiki? - Never tried to do that but you can use RSS.

# How do I get email notifications when code changes are uploaded? - Again never tried to do that, trac is not a SCM tool... but all modern SCMs have an option to send an e-mail upon a commit (even the good old cvs).

# Each project you want to manage with it gets its own separate install, which is very klunky. You have to log into each one separately (unless you set up a shared authentication system of some sort in the web server). - Yes that's something that trac doesn't do too good, but you can overcome it. Like use the same SVN repository for all your projects and just use the component field to indicate the project and you can create a new field call sub-components for a good drilldown... still not perfect but doable.

Even if you use a separate install for each project you can use a plugin to quickly switch between projects (if they all sit under the same directory) because authentication is shared there is no problem and you can still use the same SVN repository for all the projects.
If your layout is {project_name}/trunk it's easy, the url will point directly to the project. If it's trunk/{project_name} you can use directory based authorization to limit the access to the other projects.

# No task associations so you can’t do a parent-child dependency to indicate a completion hierarchy - There is a plugin to do it.

Again Trac isn't perfect but it DOESN'T SUCK!

I don't usually follow the

I don't usually follow the "something sucks" argument, but lets face it: trac sucks!

the Git plugin is so hard to install its not even funny!!

Actually due to the problems

Actually due to the problems with git-svn on Windows, unless if you have developers still on Windows and can't whole-hog migrate to git, it's best to stick with Subversion anyway as the git-svn tools on Windows just suck. I honestly don't think they won't stop being full of suck until either they're all written in C, which I don't think is going to happen.fin

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