On 17.03.2010, at 04:29, Stephen Bannasch wrote: > I often put small bits of code in commit messages.
I'm wondering if you are putting documentation in your commit messages here? The only way to get at commit messages (apart from the newest ones that are quickly reached in the history view without scrolling for hours) is generally by looking at the "log" of a file, or at its "annotations"/"blame". As such, commit messages are attached to a file and a certain character range in that file. When a user refactors code, these messages get detached from their code as it is moved to another file. It is very hard to then find the commit messages that went with these lines or character ranges originally. We're encouraged to commit often so it's easy to roll back parts. In this deluge of small commit messages, the ones with documentation are no longer easily located. A commit message and documentation are something completely different. A commit message is metadata, including bug numbers fixed and informing co-workers of the changes that occurred here. But really, the explanation you linked to, and similar ones, are documentation, and thus would benefit from being recorded in a "docs" subfolder, or in a comment next to the code they apply to, in the actual source file. Cheers, -- Uli Kusterer "The Witnesses of TeachText are everywhere..." http://www.lookandfeelcast.com
