[webkit-dev] ChangeLog

[Darin Adler]

On Jul 3, 2009, at 10:44 AM, Jeremy Orlow wrote:

> I agree that the ChangeLog really is duplicate information [...]

The WebKit project change log was inspired by GNU project change logs:  
<http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Change-Logs.html>.

I don’t like ChangeLog specifically.

My experience on other projects that don’t use ChangeLog is that many  
check-ins don’t have clear comments or descriptions, and the fact that  
these are missing is considerably easier to overlook. Source code  
control comments can be tricky if you can never delete or edit them.

I like a discipline that results in good comments about changes, and  
ones that are present even outside the source code control system. I  
often quickly find information about changes made long ago by  
searching change logs and doing even simple searches using the other  
tools available are difficult. For one thing most of them are client- 
server tools while ChangeLog is entirely local.

It's backwards to say that the ChangeLog is a workaround for lack of  
tools. Some day we may see a tool that works so well that we’d be  
willing to forgo change logs, but we need to see that tool in action  
first to see that it functions so well it obviates the need for  
ChangeLog.

Someone who thinks an automatically-generated ChangeLog would work  
well could get that working to demonstrate how well it works.

     -- Darin