Re: [Devel] truetype loader crashes in current CVS version

[Owen Taylor]

Just van Rossum <address@hidden> writes:

> Werner LEMBERG wrote:
> 
> > Usually, I walk through all code, improving/fixing the ChangeLog
> > entries (in most cases they are not detailed enough or don't follow
> > the standard).  Maybe I'm paranoid, but, as Antoined said, the
> > benefits are *extremely* helpful to find troubles with older code. 
> 
> Erm, why maintain ChangeLog manually? There are scripts that _build_
> ChangeLog-like files directly from CVS. Eg. in the Python distribution
> there's a script called logmerge.py that does exactly that.

Not to continue this add-infinitum, but some reasons for making
the ChangeLog the primary repository of change information are:

 - Because you see it all at once, there is more pressure
   to format it nicely and make meaningful entries.
 - You can go back and fix typos and mistakes
 - You can make commits that _don't_ show up in the changelog
   While this sounds evil, it's important for things like
   .cvsignore changes, when you forgot one file in a commit,
   and do another commit immediately after to fix, etc.
 - It's available in tarballs, not just for people 
   working from CVS

The rule for GTK+ and related projects is that you write the
ChangeLog entry as you go along, then you paste that as your 
log message. IMO, even easier than just doing the log mesage.

It's definitely one of the standard debates, however.

Regards,
                                        Owen