From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Is it time to drop ChangeLogs? Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2016 11:09:18 -0400 Message-ID: References: <56BE7E37.3090708@cs.ucla.edu> <4hd1rw1ubr.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> <83vb50wxhv.fsf@gnu.org> <87y49vz4cg.fsf@acer.localhost.com> <87twg2g86g.fsf@lifelogs.com> <87twg05nqf.fsf@russet.org.uk> <83a8hla8nx.fsf@gnu.org> <87mvlkigb1.fsf@russet.org.uk> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=Utf-8 X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1468595597 28726 80.91.229.3 (15 Jul 2016 15:13:17 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2016 15:13:17 +0000 (UTC) Cc: eliz@gnu.org, monnier@iro.umontreal.ca, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: phillip.lord@russet.org.uk (Phillip Lord) Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Jul 15 17:13:02 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 1bO4nU-0004cP-AZ for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 15 Jul 2016 17:13:00 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:33110 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1bO4nT-0004e9-KC for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 15 Jul 2016 11:12:59 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:56739) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1bO4kh-00025M-FG for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 15 Jul 2016 11:10:08 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1bO4kf-0007z0-Fb for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 15 Jul 2016 11:10:06 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:34969) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1bO4jw-0007dL-8W; Fri, 15 Jul 2016 11:09:20 -0400 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1bO4ju-0000UW-Aa; Fri, 15 Jul 2016 11:09:18 -0400 In-reply-to: <87mvlkigb1.fsf@russet.org.uk> (phillip.lord@russet.org.uk) 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: 2.1.21 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" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:205718 Archived-At: [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]] > There are two main problems with ChangeLog format -- first, it's just a > bit of a pain splitting the information into changes associated with > individual functions. The second, more substantive issue, is that it > focuses the mind too much on how we have changed things rather than why, > at least in my experience. We could ask people to give bigger overall explanations in the log entry. However, those should be in addition to, not instead of, explaining in comments in the code. -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation (gnu.org, fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (internethalloffame.org) Skype: No way! See stallman.org/skype.html.