From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Ben Finney Subject: Re: A request: Moving away from ChangeLog Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 23:01:28 +1000 Message-ID: <87vdahflxz.fsf@benfinney.id.au> References: <2151275B-C80E-4B40-9022-8C9054020163@gmail.com> <469766F9-7C25-4792-A203-B241C22E2ED5@gmail.com> <94D31A4E-B262-4E06-AE2A-9C3D43145CAC@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=55743 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1OFRrG-0005zX-Uy for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 21 May 2010 09:01:49 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OFRrE-0006or-Vn for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 21 May 2010 09:01:46 -0400 Received: from lo.gmane.org ([80.91.229.12]:55365) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OFRrE-0006oQ-Lk for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 21 May 2010 09:01:44 -0400 Received: from list by lo.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OFRrA-0001yj-ID for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 21 May 2010 15:01:40 +0200 Received: from eth595.vic.adsl.internode.on.net ([150.101.214.82]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Fri, 21 May 2010 15:01:40 +0200 Received: from ben+emacs by eth595.vic.adsl.internode.on.net with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Fri, 21 May 2010 15:01:40 +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 Carsten Dominik writes: > On May 21, 2010, at 11:41 AM, John Wiegley wrote: > > This makes it trivial to build ChangeLog entries for a range of > > commits, suitable for submission to Emacs. It may need a bit more > > work to be production-ready, but it can already produce a ChangeLog > > for all of org-mode. […] > If this works, lets stop writing ChangeLog. This is a great improvement. It seems worth pointing out explicitly, though: Eliminating a manually-maintained ChangeLog doesn't obviate the need for a ChangeLog (or the equivalent) in the distributed source. This is because the copyright holders license their works under the GPLv2, and §2.a of those terms requires the work to include dated notice of all modifications made to the work. This is conventionally understood to be most directly satisfied by a ChangeLog in the distributed source for the work. Generating that file automatically from the VCS commit messages, at the time a source release is packaged, is a good use of the VCS. > This will make most merges working without hickups, finally. And it > will make us, hopefully, write better commit messages. Indeed. Having one canonical location for a piece of information, with every other instance of it derived from that location, can help reduce the burden of recording that information. -- \ “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death | `\ your right to say it.” —Evelyn Beatrice Hall, _The Friends of | _o__) Voltaire_, 1906 | Ben Finney