Re: Criteria for Acceptable Git to ChangeLog

[John Darrington]

On Sat, May 12, 2018 at 05:19:55PM -0400, Richard Stallman wrote:
     
     I think we need something that will generate, from the repo, the list
     of entities changed -- reliably enough that errors are rare and not a
     problem.

Let us restrict the discussion to C for the time being.  I think in this case
"entities" are :

 * files
 * functions
 * variables not in global scope

I don't think it's necessary to identify, for example the variable "i" in
for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i)

Do you have a different understanding of what entities are ?

     
     As for the descriptions of the changes in each entity, that is important
     when the change in an entity is complex enough to want description.
     We could put that sort of info in commit messages, by saying something
     about how the change works.

I am of the opinion that a commit message/changelog description should say 
*why* a change was made, rather than to elaborate or summarize on *what* 
change was made.  After all, what change was made can be determined from 
the repository, and if any explanation is necessary they should be put in
as comments in the code.


J'


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