[RFC] Policy change for ChangeLog

[Karl Hegbloom]

I was taught to maintain ChangeLog as I edit.  In Emacs, you type:

  C-x 4 a

... to add a ChangeLog entry.  (Will a vim user please explain the
process used?  Does it automatically insert a ChangeLog entry template
with the ISO-8601 date, file name, and function?)  So for each change
you make, you make a note of it, as you go, so that later on, when you
review the diff prior to commit, you have less work to do, and you won't
have forgotten why you did something.  It takes a certain amount of
discipline to do this, but make it easier not to forget to make an
entry.

With pcl-cvs, it would take the ChangeLog and pull out the pieces
pertaining to a set of files you are committing, to use for the commit
log entry.  The psvn interface should do that also, if it doesn't
already.  Again, I'm not a vim user, so someone familiar with that would
have to explain the process.  Do you use an external tool for working
with svn?  A Perl script could pull the ChangeLog parts out into a
commit log you can edit prior to commit...

Earlier, someone mentioned using ChangeLog for listing things like
what's changed in the API, new features, deprecations, etc., but that's
not what ChangeLog is for.  That's what NEWS is for.

IMO, trying to make an automatically generated ChangeLog from svn commit
log entries is inviting laziness wrt writing readable and meaningful log
entries that mention every significant modification.  You are not
supposed to commit after every little change as you go.  You are
supposed to get it all squared away, then commit a related set of
changes as a unit.  Sometimes it takes several days of work to get that
all together, and so logging as you go becomes more important.  It
prevents you from forgetting to log a change.  Reviewing a pile of diffs
to see what you changed so you can write a log entry is tedious.  If the
changes are already logged, then the review of the diff is just a quick
scan --- you don't have to totally parse every modification then.

-- 
Karl Hegbloom <hegbloom at pdx.edu>