ChangeLog file

[Luís Oliveira]

On Sat, Jan 11, 2014 at 2:18 PM, João Távora <joaotavora at gmail.com> wrote:
> I don't agree at all: you *should* describe in the ChangeLog or commit
> messages **why you changed what**. In the NEWS file, you describe the
> user-visible aspects of your change.

We both agree that a change log should describe the "why". My point is
that the GNU ChangeLog format encourages describing the "what" (see
for example <http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Style-of-Change-Logs.html#Style-of-Change-Logs>)
which made perfect sense back in the CVS days, not such much with a
modern VCS. My second point is that energy wasted producing this kind
of ChangeLog would be better pointed towards updating the NEWS file as
well as proper commit messages.

That said, going through SLIME's ChangeLog I see plenty of useful
explanations, so it might not be that much of an issue. I suppose
going through each changed definition is a good review exercise.

There's some redundancy between the ChangeLog and Git log that needs
to be addressed. I agree with Helmut that waiting to see what Emacs
does seems reasonable.

Just my 2 cents,

-- 
Luís Oliveira
http://kerno.org/~luis/