From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Eli Zaretskii Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Is it time to drop ChangeLogs? Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2016 22:58:06 +0200 Message-ID: <83io0yt38h.fsf@gnu.org> References: <56BE7E37.3090708@cs.ucla.edu> <4hd1rw1ubr.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> <83vb50wxhv.fsf@gnu.org> <87y49vz4cg.fsf@acer.localhost.com> <87vb4zb0i4.fsf@gnu.org> <837fheuu6a.fsf@gnu.org> <877fheb1rh.fsf@wanadoo.es> Reply-To: Eli Zaretskii NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1457384307 31526 80.91.229.3 (7 Mar 2016 20:58:27 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2016 20:58:27 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: =?iso-8859-1?Q?=D3scar?= Fuentes Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Mar 07 21:58:26 2016 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1ad2ET-0008HZ-CS for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 07 Mar 2016 21:58:25 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:58518 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ad2ES-0003L5-Te for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 07 Mar 2016 15:58:24 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:44180) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ad2E6-0003Gk-Rv for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 07 Mar 2016 15:58:03 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ad2E3-0002sy-LB for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 07 Mar 2016 15:58:02 -0500 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:51568) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ad2E3-0002su-I6; Mon, 07 Mar 2016 15:57:59 -0500 Original-Received: from 84.94.185.246.cable.012.net.il ([84.94.185.246]:1717 helo=home-c4e4a596f7) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtpsa (TLS1.2:RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:128) (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1ad2E2-00056X-Qe; Mon, 07 Mar 2016 15:57:59 -0500 In-reply-to: <877fheb1rh.fsf@wanadoo.es> (message from =?iso-8859-1?Q?=D3s?= =?iso-8859-1?Q?car?= Fuentes on Mon, 07 Mar 2016 19:07:14 +0100) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] X-Received-From: 2001:4830:134:3::e X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:201071 Archived-At: > From: Óscar Fuentes > Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2016 19:07:14 +0100 > > > I agree completely. Writing a log entry in ChangeLog format is an > > excellent opportunity for reflecting on the changeset, for summarizing > > its intent and final shape, and for making sure nothing was left out. > > Writing those entries teaches one discipline, the ability to describe > > your changes in just enough detail, and facilitates communications > > between members of the development team. And in loose teams such as > > ours, good communications are everything. > > The same applies to writing a good commit log. I have the impression > that the ChangeLog was acting as an excuse for poor commit logs, while > the ChangeLog's contents could be categorized as `lame' on the best of > cases. There is nothing on the ChangeLog that I can't get from the VC > history, on steroids. We can have a practice of copying the same log entries to both places. In fact, most people already do. > Emacs has, probably, the worst record on commit log quality of all the > major projects I contributed to. That's far from truth, IME. > Writing ChangeLogs feels so pointless (and, hence, irritant) to me that > on the past I refrained from submitting things to Emacs and keep them on > my local branch. If you want to write commit log messages, you won't need any additional effort for ChangeLogs.