Anyone with a passing familiarity with Apple tech support knows the mantra well. RADAR, the bug reporting tool used when flagging issues up to Cupertino, has been a source of discontent for some time in the Dev community. The core problem is the lack of transparency and shareability in the tool, a complaint not often associated with Apple’s products. A petition has been started to get Apple’s attention, aptly labeled Fix Radar or GTFO. The full text of their argument can be found here, but of central concern to the petitioners: “Radar is also a black hole. We file radars and we’re lucky to hear back about them. The majority of radars are either left untouched or marked as duplicates of other radars we cannot see. We may get a request for more information from engineering, but sometimes it is for irrelevant information or information already given in the original report. By making radars so hard and painful to file, most developers end up not filing them.” Their point is well made, and the developer’s aren’t arguing against using a system like Radar. Bug tracking systems exist for a good reason when handling a dense and complex SDK like Apple’s. They just don’t want to feel forced to resort to public sources like Open Radar in order to let fellow Developers know what they have filed, let alone to see if they would be filing a duplicate. The only thing a Dev ever sees is their bug marked as a duplicate, without the ability to check the original filing since it’s locked by the original filer. More importantly, there is the issue of transparency: The system is tightly closed, and according to the petition renowned for being very painful to use. Without a search function or the ability to even see an original filing by someone else, Dev’s give up on filing because the result is almost never seen. It’s a bizarre situation when you consider the developer forums are in contrast highly open, and structured to handle privacy concerns like pre release software. Considering the community nature of Dev’s, I think it’s also painful that the current Radar has no up voting or comment features at all, though obvious in its currently closed state. I don’t see why Apple can’t harness the power of collective decision making in guiding its technical support priorities. It’s ironic really, considering the user friendliness the company is renowned for. Why they have not upgraded Radar to a modern reporting solution is anyone’s guess, but their Dev’s aren’t just muttering to themselves anymore. With over 450 signatures, many of them respected voices in development circles; Apple is under pressure to appease the lifeblood of their software revenue. ( By Douglas Stewart )