On 11/08/2011 12:15, John H. Robinson, IV wrote:
> Carlos R. Mafra wrote:
>> On Tue, 8 Nov 2011 at 11:23:56 -0800, John H. Robinson, IV wrote:
>>> Carlos R. Mafra wrote:
>>>> On Tue, 8 Nov 2011 at 20:24:25 +0200, Rodolfo kix Garcia wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> can you apply this patch too? Is the changelog info of this patch.
>>>>
>>>> No, I don't think changelogs are necessary anymore -- 'git log' is
>>>> the way to see what changed.
>>>
>>> Until the package is tarred up, and the git log is no longer available.
>>
>> But that's a problem for who makes the tarball, not for the repo. Ergo, the
>> repo must not care.
>
> I was discussing this with some other folks, and this is what we came up
> with:
>
> 1) Changelogs are for end users; git logs for developers
> 2) Changelogs are feature-based; git logs are content-based
>
> They serve two very different purposes. If you want to get down to it,
> why bother with git logs when you have the diffs themselves, right?
>
> Changelogs are merely a higher level again, for a different audience.
>
> I can't make you change your mind, but I hope you gain a bit of
> understanding why some people see changelogs as important.
As developers we tend to see things from the standpoint of the tools we
use. It's easy to lose track of "the user experience." As a user I like
to see a brief change log when I update a piece of software. It lets me
know what I need to regression test if nothing else. :) Slogging
through all of the VCS logs can make it difficult to get just the
high-level information that I need.
To answer the question of "Why have VCS logs when you can just look at
the diffs?" those logs should be primarily focused on the "why?" of the
change, since as you point out the "what?" can be answered from the
diffs. I know you asked that question somewhat in jest, but as someone
who helps train new developers on VCS best practices it's a topic that
is near and dear to my heart. The ratio of why::what that I usually
recommend is roughly 2::1, but that depends on what you're working with
of course.
Doug
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