Re: [flame] NEWS file is useless

[David Chisnall]

On 26 Nov 2009, at 22:15, Riccardo Mottola wrote:

> Not only in a ChangeLog I can write more than in a commit and I can  
> group files and comment on sigle pieces of them, but it is an easy  
> file I can check.


Are you using a different svn to me?  When I do a commit, it pops up  
$EDITOR (vim in my case, but apparently some people use the other one)  
and I can type as much as I want into it.  I frequently put a couple  
of paragraphs into commit logs.

> Also, one interesting point: can I correct a svn commit message?

Yes.

> It happens that I write wrong information or that I find a better  
> way to explain it. With the ChangeLog it is easy... I commit a new  
> improved version.
> What would you do with svn?

svn propedit.  Commit messages are in svn properties and can be edited  
just like any other properties.

You can edit the commit message and it remains associated with the  
revision, so, for example people who use viewvc to browse the source  
code can jump to the commit log.  If something has recently changed in  
NSOutlineView, for example, then I go here:

http://svn.gna.org/viewcvs/gnustep/libs/gui/trunk/Source/NSOutlineView.m?rev=29065&dir_pagestart=150&view=log

I get the commit message for each change and can see the diff side by  
side.  If the person who made the change put the message in the  
ChangeLog instead, then I have to search in a separate file as well  
for each change that touched the file.  In no possible way is that  
easier.

> Also, A ChangeLog is easy to search. When something breaks I grep in  
> the changelog. Old habits.

Why is:

cat ChangeLog | grep

easier than:

svn log | grep

Especially as the svn log line can be filtered to find the changes on  
a specific file just by specifying the file on the command line.

David

-- Sent from my Cray X1