From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Stephen J. Turnbull" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Basic Bazaar guide for Emacs hackers. Date: Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:27:26 +0900 Message-ID: <87pr73qfc1.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> References: <87skbzblp5.fsf@telefonica.net> <87iqcvh26y.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1259392937 22436 80.91.229.12 (28 Nov 2009 07:22:17 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 28 Nov 2009 07:22:17 +0000 (UTC) Cc: ofv@wanadoo.es, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: rms@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Nov 28 08:22:10 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 1NEHdB-0001dm-3S for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:22:09 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:57442 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1NEHdA-0002fU-Cr for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 28 Nov 2009 02:22:08 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1NEHd3-0002en-BI for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 28 Nov 2009 02:22:01 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1NEHcy-0002dj-JU for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 28 Nov 2009 02:22:00 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=54301 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1NEHcy-0002dc-GU for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 28 Nov 2009 02:21:56 -0500 Original-Received: from mtps01.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp ([130.158.97.223]:39243) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1NEHcw-0001m2-Cg; Sat, 28 Nov 2009 02:21:54 -0500 Original-Received: from uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp [130.158.99.156]) by mtps01.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix) with ESMTP id E5C171535B3; Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:21:52 +0900 (JST) Original-Received: by uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 06BF711EF44; Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:27:27 +0900 (JST) In-Reply-To: X-Mailer: VM 8.0.12-devo-585 under 21.5 (beta29) "garbanzo" 1444e28f1a3d XEmacs Lucid (x86_64-unknown-linux) X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6, seldom 2.4 (older, 4) 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:117902 Archived-At: Richard Stallman writes: > What you are recommending is very easy for the individual developer > but makes for a messy history. > > Could you explain what you mean by messy? Objectively, which are the > characteristics you consider messy? Knowing that, I could determine > whether I agree with you. (1) VCS commit messages which are committed at the end of a protracted review tend to be less detailed and sometimes inaccurate, sometimes because they are not revised to reflect review, sometimes because the details are poorly remembered. Conversely, the kinds of effort needed to keep accurate information in logs are somewhat reduced by a practice of frequent commits. (In the workflow recommended by BzrForEmacsDevs, you get to have your cake and eat it too: "bzr log" by default shows the details of all the commits when used in the working branch, but only the summary log for the merge commit when used in mirrors of the trunk.) (2) Medium-sized repetitive tasks (such as updating a bunch of function calls from an obsolete API to the recommended one) tend to occur in several commits, interspersed with commits from other tasks. (3) Anything that can be considered a single task tends to get committed, even though a more global view would group it with other tasks. (4) People tend to commit everything in their workspace, including unrelated typo fixes and small bugfixes. Sometimes the additional changes aren't logged. This is an easy mistake to make occasionally, even if you normally take care about it. All of these can be ameliorated with discipline in a CVS-style workflow; for most people it seems to require substantially less effort to use feature branches to organize their work.