From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Paul Eggert Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Abolishing ChangeLog files Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2013 23:36:46 -0700 Message-ID: <5155367E.9040505@cs.ucla.edu> References: <87y5d9p5td.fsf@dex.adm.naquadah.org> <87vc8dtbcb.fsf@lifelogs.com> <871ub1gmdf.fsf@engster.org> <87d2ulovd0.fsf@dex.adm.naquadah.org> <85r4j0h1ww.fsf@member.fsf.org> <85li98h1qx.fsf@member.fsf.org> <87ehf0b3x2.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> <87obe3gaem.fsf@engster.org> <87ip4bj1ay.fsf_-_@earth.home> <87a9pnhjya.fsf@gmail.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1364539013 11000 80.91.229.3 (29 Mar 2013 06:36:53 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2013 06:36:53 +0000 (UTC) To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Mar 29 07:37:20 2013 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 1ULSwB-00089f-Cu for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 29 Mar 2013 07:37:19 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:53002 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ULSvm-0004XN-Sh for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 29 Mar 2013 02:36:54 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:33322) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ULSvh-0004XI-Uw for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 29 Mar 2013 02:36:51 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ULSvh-0002Ue-1y for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 29 Mar 2013 02:36:49 -0400 Original-Received: from smtp.cs.ucla.edu ([131.179.128.62]:46091) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ULSvg-0002Ua-Pl for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 29 Mar 2013 02:36:48 -0400 Original-Received: from localhost (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by smtp.cs.ucla.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id 16B7C39E810E for ; Thu, 28 Mar 2013 23:36:48 -0700 (PDT) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at smtp.cs.ucla.edu Original-Received: from smtp.cs.ucla.edu ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.cs.ucla.edu [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id mrNl4BqpDqqh for ; Thu, 28 Mar 2013 23:36:47 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: from [10.10.0.59] (rrcs-74-62-23-134.west.biz.rr.com [74.62.23.134]) by smtp.cs.ucla.edu (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 6A77D39E810F for ; Thu, 28 Mar 2013 23:36:47 -0700 (PDT) User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:17.0) Gecko/20130308 Thunderbird/17.0.4 In-Reply-To: X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6.x X-Received-From: 131.179.128.62 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:158405 Archived-At: > The rules we supposedly follow in Emacs's repository is to put a copy of > the ChangeLog entry in the commit record. So the ChangeLog file > should be redundant. If it's not, it's an error of the committer. > > I guess I have made that error in all my commits. > > Why choose this approach, rather than the one I used? It's simpler and less confusing if the ChangeLog equals the commit record. When I'm reading a ChangeLog, I often want to know the overall purpose of the change, and it can be frustrating when this information is omitted. Conversely, when I'm reading a sequence of commit records, it's convenient to know all the functions and files that got changed, for the same reason it's convenient to know this when reading a ChangeLog. For Emacs, I use typically use vc-dwim (a GNU program) to check in changes. vc-dwim computes the commit record automatically from the ChangeLog changes. So I don't have to write commit records, and this saves me time. Many GNU programs these days compute ChangeLog files automatically from the commit records, which boils down to the same thing. (vc-dwim also supports this style of maintenance.)