[webkit-dev] I *HATE* CHANGELOGS!!!

[Brady Eidson]

On Aug 28, 2009, at 12:18 PM, George Staikos wrote:

>
> On 26-Aug-09, at 2:44 PM, Maciej Stachowiak wrote:
>
>>
>> On Aug 26, 2009, at 5:38 PM, Geoffrey Garen wrote:
>>
>>>> Detailed descriptions, bug links, test instructions, and a link  
>>>> back to the entire original review history are all part of  
>>>> Chromium commits, yet we don't use ChangeLogs.  I think  
>>>> discipline about what to include + tooling to support it are  
>>>> orthogonal to a project's use of a ChangeLog as the mechanism for  
>>>> conveying this information.
>>>
>>> [This question not necessarily just for Peter:]
>>>
>>> If we removed the discipline of reviewing ChangeLogs, and the  
>>> tools that autogenerate a ChangeLog template and check for a  
>>> ChangeLog entry without an "OOPs I didn't get this reviewed"  
>>> message, what would we replace them with?
>>
>> I can imagine a discipline where we ensure that pending commit  
>> entries sit in a designated file in your tree, are made by a tool  
>> much like prepare-ChangeLog, are included in patches by svn-create- 
>> patch, are applied by svn-apply-patch, and are used by commit-log- 
>> editor. That would ensure the entries go through the patch life  
>> cycle just as much as currently.
>>
>> Another possibility is to have a review site (bugzilla?) be the  
>> canonical place for log entries until they get committed. At commit  
>> time, a tool would pull from this location.
>
>
>   I want to add a +1 for the "hate changelogs" group.  I have been  
> advocating this for about 4 years now.  It's much more painful when  
> on a remote, slow link.  Is it really a problem to generate the  
> ChangeLog files from the svn commit messages on a daily or weekly  
> basis?  There are scripts for this.

This is an interesting idea.

Mark Rowe already pointed out - doing an automated step for each  
checkin that causes another checkin would be ridiculous.  But how  
about a nightly script that checks in a ChangeLog accounting for the  
day's commits?

Seems reasonable to me.  +1

~Brady

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