Re: Your commit 7409a79

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: Stephen Leake <stephen_leake@stephe-leake.org>
> Date: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 16:33:47 -0600
> 
> Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
> 
> >   commit 7409a79b1b2acf1229dd763f5eb7b96abc17113a
> >   Author: Stephen Leake <stephen_leake@stephe-leake.org>
> >   Date:   Fri Dec 5 13:13:55 2014 -0600
> >
> >       preparing for further changes/cleanup to developers/contributors docs
> >
> >       * etc/CONTRIBUTE: renamed to ./CONTRIBUTE,
> >
> > Please always start the commit log summary line with a capital letter,
> > and end the sentence with a period.
> 
> Do we really need to be so picky?

It's just a good style.

> Note that the Gnu coding standard does _not_ discuss this level of
> detail, although all the examples do have capitals and periods
> (http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Change-Logs.html#Change-Logs).

Exactly.  Also, all the other entries in Emacs's own logs.

> I see this pickiness as a mild barrier to contributing

I don't think it is.  Writing correct English is a basic requirement,
it doesn't even have to be in the document.  Like correct spelling,
for example.

> > (Actually, in the above
> > particular case the summary line is redundant and could be omitted --
> > but this is a stylistic comment, not a requirement.)
> 
> I tried that:
> 
> * etc/CONTRIBUTE: renamed to ./CONTRIBUTE, preparing for further changes/cleanup to developers/contributors docs

The "preparing for" part doesn't need to be there, it has exactly zero
importance in the context of a commit log.

> I didn't want to just do:
> 
> * etc/CONTRIBUTE: renamed to ./CONTRIBUTE
> 
> since that doesn't say anything about _why_.

You don't need to say why.  You could push all the changes to the
file, including its move, as a single commit, or a merge-commit with a
single explanatory line.  In general, keeping related changes together
requires less explanations.

You could also point to the list discussion, if you really think
people will need to know why you moved the file.

Also, saying it's "in preparation" of something doesn't really explain
why, since a file can be changed without moving it.