commit style redux

[Miles Bader]

Hmm, so since Emacs is going to move to a real source-control system in
the near(ish) future, maybe people could start trying to use a
commit-style which is more friendly to such systems?

Not only is this good practice for the future, but it also creates a
much nicer change history when the CVS repo is converted to the new
system (and even now, for people currently tracking Emacs via other
systems).

E.g., --

 (1) Commit all changed files at once with a single log message (which
     in CVS will result in an identical log message for all committed
     files), not one-by-one.  This is pretty easy using vc-dir now.

 (2) Make the log message describe the entire changeset, perhaps
     including relevant changelog entiries (I often don't bother with
     the latter if it's a trivial sort of change).

     Many modern source-control systems vaguely distinguish the first
     line of the log message to use as a short summary for abbreviated
     history listing (in arch this was explicitly called the summary,
     but many other systems have a similar concept).  So it's nice if
     you can format the log entry like:

        SHORTISH ONE-LINE SUMMARY

        MULTIPLE-LINE DETAILED DESCRIPTION POSSIBLY INCLUDING (OR
        CONSISTING OF) CHANGELOG ENTRIES

     [Even with CVS this style is useful, because web CVS browsing
     interfaces often include the first N words of the log message of
     the most recent commit as a short "most recent change"
     description.]

 (3) Don't phrase log messages assuming the filename is known, because
     in non-file-oriented systems (everything modern other than CVS),
     the log listing tends to be treated as global information, and the
     connection with specific files is less explicit.

     For instance, currently I often see log messages like "Regenerate";
     for modern source-control systems with a global log, it's better to
     have something like "Regenerate configure".

I know I'm always harping on this, but I figure with the change looming
ever closer, I'll try again... :-)

Thanks,

-Miles

-- 
`Life is a boundless sea of bitterness'