> After 20 years of hacking on GCC I feel like I have literally wasted > days of my life typing out ChangeLog entries that could have easily been > generated programmatically. > > Can someone refresh my memory here, what are the remaining arguments for > requiring ChangeLog entries?
I take the position that any ChangeLog entry that could have been generated automatically is not a good one. Yes, the list of functions changed could be generated automatically. (Isn't there actually a way to do that in emacs? I could have sworn I saw it, though I never used it much.) But the *purpose* of the change to that function can't be generated automatically because the ChangeLog entry is the only place that should have that information. The comments should say what a function currently does, but isn't the place for a history lesson. That data belongs only in ChangeLog In other words, I believe that these three things: - code - comments - ChangeLog entry should all contain unique information (to be clear, not *all* of it is unique, but *some* should be) that can't be derived from the other item. Therefore each serves a critical purpose.
