From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Alan Mackenzie Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Summarizing the purpose of a change. Date: Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:19:50 +0000 Message-ID: <20091121121950.GB2021@muc.de> References: <87iqd4tkv4.fsf@red-bean.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1258805705 22694 80.91.229.12 (21 Nov 2009 12:15:05 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:15:05 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Karl Fogel Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Nov 21 13:14:58 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1NBori-000686-73 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:14:58 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:42713 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1NBorh-0000ca-FZ for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:14:57 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1NBorb-0000Zw-IA for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:14:51 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1NBorW-0000Z7-Ls for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:14:50 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=52948 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1NBorW-0000Z4-Gr for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:14:46 -0500 Original-Received: from colin.muc.de ([193.149.48.1]:3270 helo=mail.muc.de) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1NBorW-0002Hz-2e for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:14:46 -0500 Original-Received: (qmail 23668 invoked by uid 3782); 21 Nov 2009 12:14:43 -0000 Original-Received: from acm.muc.de (pD9E23891.dip.t-dialin.net [217.226.56.145]) by colin2.muc.de (tmda-ofmipd) with ESMTP; Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:14:41 +0100 Original-Received: (qmail 5704 invoked by uid 1000); 21 Nov 2009 12:19:50 -0000 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <87iqd4tkv4.fsf@red-bean.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.9i X-Delivery-Agent: TMDA/1.1.5 (Fettercairn) X-Primary-Address: acm@muc.de X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: FreeBSD 4.6-4.9 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:117433 Archived-At: Hi, Karl, On Sat, Nov 21, 2009 at 01:09:19AM -0600, Karl Fogel wrote: > I'm using the change below as an example for a more general question: > In many projects, there is a convention of summarizing the purpose of a > change in one or two sentences at the start of the log entry. This > makes the rest of the log entry (and the change itself) easier to > understand. > Could we try that in Emacs? Or is there some reason we don't do it? I do this every time. So far, nobody's complained. > For example, for the change below, even after reading the entire log > entry it's hard to figure out what the committer's overall intention > was. Is it just a bunch of random improvements that happen to be sent > in one commit? Or is it a unified change group all made toward one > overall purpose? I'm not sure. I guess I could figure it out if I > looked at the diff, but the committer already knows the answer... > (Nothing about this change looks wrong, I hasten to add, and it's great > that Stefan is cleaning stuff up. It would just a lot easier to > evaluate the change, and follow what's going on in general, if one knew > the intentions. In this case, even just saying "Random code cleanups > and minor bug fixes" would help set the right mood for the reviewer.) Agreed. > -Karl -- Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).