But then, when software developers realize how much Jira gets in their way, the good ones do their best to avoid using it. Which results in Jira being a great tool for middle-managers to query a very stale database.
On your point about inserting code blocks you should be able to type `/code` and hit enter. If you’re not using the newer version or a page with the new editor, I think you type `{` instead of `/` but it’s been a while since I’ve used that one.
{code:java}
... some java code
{code}
That's when you are editing in "raw" mode, which, incidentally, I haven't been able to discover how to do in the New Issue View (which I finally discovered how to turn off, that is to say, switch back to Old Issue View, globally -- it's under account settings, yay! The "New Issue View" is a lab setting you can turn OFF.)
You can also change an issue from the new view to the old view by selecting "switch to old view" from the More menu (three dots).
I have to say, it's painful using Atlassian tools after having worked with GitLab for 5 years... I miss being able to use standard markdown in Issues, and editing the Wiki using Git/vi instead of in a text box in a Web browser, with strange markup.
I use jira at work and I like it.
But our use case is maybe more limited/liberal. For us it is:
1) list tasks to do and how tasks are linked
2) archive discussion about issues and integrates with butbucket (so in commit it will link to ticket to read about why something was done; similarly from issue discussion I can see the relevant commits; this also goes well with history either by looking to linked issues or blaming in git and getting issues that resulted in the commits)
3) enables pointing other devs to something (I did some partial task, need help, I assign or cc someone else, they contribute to the issue as appropriate and then hand it back). Helps ensure all relevant discussion is centralized and persisted.
What we don’t do is use it as an explicit performance/formal sprint tool... there is no middle manager questioning me about something I wrote/didn’t write in jira. is this where people start to hate it?
When people complain about bug trackers, they probably need a new outlook on work. They need to aggressively prioritize tasks. They need to be in a mental state where they're happy working on the highest priority thing, not the most interesting thing. You can't get there by buying a new tool for $9.99 per user per month. You probably need a vacation.
At my last job, we switched from Jira to Github Issues to Asana. Each tool had the same problems -- bugs were filed faster than they were fixed. I am personally okay with that -- I know that most of these things will never be done, but it's nice to park the idea somewhere. But to others, it's crushing, and although people will complain that they don't like Jira's UI, what they really hate is that realization that they will never "finish".
Whenever someone suggests we use another tool, it's immediately rejected unless it can be integrated with the atlassian suite. So if we want to run some kind of vote for understanding how our technical debt affects different parts of the project we can't use a specialist (free) Condorcet app, such as this https://civs.cs.cornell.edu/, we have to use jira's voting system.
NB: Not associated with Gitlab the company in any way.
Jira recently overhauled their UI to make it more similar to Clubhouse, but it still isn't as good. Jira is still slow and buggy. Clubhouse also has seamless integration with Github which makes it feel like I am using GitHub issues when tagging PRs, etc. There is also a BitBucket integration, but haven't used it. To me Clubhouse does something that no other similar tool does: make PMs and engineers happy.
Jira can do many things. Or so I’m told. I just don’t think it helps me as a dev.
And then my current company picked up SalesForce.... It's like relieving the horror.
JIRA is terrible to manage and it's permissions system is rubbish but it does issue management okay.