Re: Circumstances in which ChangeLog format is no longer useful

[Joseph Myers]

On Sat, 5 Aug 2017, John Darrington wrote:

> As I see it, we there are 3 distinct questions to be answered:
> 
> 1.  Should we continue to have ChangeLogs?
> 
> 2.  If so, what information should they contain?
> 
> 3.  If SCM tool or VCS is used to manage the project, is it acceptable to
>     autogenerate the ChangeLog from the SCM?
> 
> 
> In my opinion the answer to these are: "Yes", "A brief description and 
> rationale", and "yes".

And my view is:

1. This (whether a file called ChangeLog is shipped in releases, or 
whether the logs are only in the VCS) is not an important question.

2. Commit logs, and ChangeLog files if shipped, should have 
changeset-level descriptions of changes written with the expectation that 
the reader has access to the VCS to look at the details of the change if 
desired.  The descriptions may or may not refer to individual changed 
files or functions, depending on whether that's helpful for the reader to 
understand the change.

3. This is already explicitly OK and does not require a change to the 
standards.

-- 
Joseph S. Myers
address@hidden