From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Christian Egli Subject: Re: A request: Moving away from ChangeLog Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 23:10:17 +0200 Message-ID: <871vd5dkqu.fsf@saadawi.sbszh.ch> References: <2151275B-C80E-4B40-9022-8C9054020163@gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Return-path: Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=53815 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1OFZUE-0007Hu-Q4 for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 21 May 2010 17:10:32 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OFZUC-0008B3-Co for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 21 May 2010 17:10:30 -0400 Received: from lo.gmane.org ([80.91.229.12]:54175) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OFZUB-0008AA-SF for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 21 May 2010 17:10:28 -0400 Received: from list by lo.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OFZU9-00050k-Cj for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 21 May 2010 23:10:25 +0200 Received: from gateway01.sbszh.ch ([217.162.18.85]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Fri, 21 May 2010 23:10:25 +0200 Received: from christian.egli by gateway01.sbszh.ch with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Fri, 21 May 2010 23:10:25 +0200 List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org Hi all John Wiegley writes: > The Emacs ChangeLog is a file which predates the existence of freely > available, project-wide version control. It was a way to see, in one > place, the stream of changes occurring in a project -- something which > RCS could not do for you. The only problem is that we need to have a Changelog for upstream, i.e. Emacs. > However, in this modern era of project-wide, atomic commits, the > ChangeLog is not only an archaism, but is a continuous source of merge > conflicts. For example, when I reverted Russell's latest change -- a > one-liner that was minor in the extreme -- I had to do with a merge > conflict in lisp/ChangeLog. If the real problem you're trying to solve is the merge conflicts you get with the Changelog files then the solution might be Bruno Haible’s git merge driver for GNU-style ChangeLog files[1] (available in gnulib[2]). Automatic generation of the Changelog file sounds like a fine solution and I'm all for it, but when it comes down to the actual requirements of the Changelog (such as file and especially function names) things don't look that rosy anymore (doesn't work outside of Emacs, can no longer use M-x add-change-log-entry, etc). So before pouring out the baby with the bathwater maybe we should at least try if the git merge driver solves the main problem we have with the Changelog files. Thanks Christian Footnotes: [1] http://www.mail-archive.com/bug-gnulib@gnu.org/msg09183.html [2] http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=gnulib.git;a=blob;f=lib/git-merge-changelog.c -- Christian Egli Swiss Library for the Blind, Visually Impaired and Print Disabled Grubenstrasse 12, CH-8045 Zürich, Switzerland