From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 31928 invoked by alias); 15 Dec 2007 22:55:17 -0000 Received: (qmail 31920 invoked by uid 22791); 15 Dec 2007 22:55:17 -0000 X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org Received: from mx1.redhat.com (HELO mx1.redhat.com) (66.187.233.31) by sourceware.org (qpsmtpd/0.31) with ESMTP; Sat, 15 Dec 2007 22:55:03 +0000 Received: from int-mx1.corp.redhat.com (int-mx1.corp.redhat.com [172.16.52.254]) by mx1.redhat.com (8.13.8/8.13.1) with ESMTP id lBFMt0V5008109; Sat, 15 Dec 2007 17:55:00 -0500 Received: from pobox.corp.redhat.com (pobox.corp.redhat.com [10.11.255.20]) by int-mx1.corp.redhat.com (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id lBFMt0YE019563; Sat, 15 Dec 2007 17:55:00 -0500 Received: from livre.oliva.athome.lsd.ic.unicamp.br (vpn-248-19.boston.redhat.com [10.13.248.19]) by pobox.corp.redhat.com (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id lBFMswPK020412; Sat, 15 Dec 2007 17:54:59 -0500 Received: from livre.oliva.athome.lsd.ic.unicamp.br (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by livre.oliva.athome.lsd.ic.unicamp.br (8.14.2/8.14.2) with ESMTP id lBFMsvRn020821; Sat, 15 Dec 2007 20:54:57 -0200 Received: (from aoliva@localhost) by livre.oliva.athome.lsd.ic.unicamp.br (8.14.2/8.14.2/Submit) id lBFMssMf020820; Sat, 15 Dec 2007 20:54:54 -0200 To: kenner@vlsi1.ultra.nyu.edu (Richard Kenner) Cc: dberlin@dberlin.org, bernds_cb1@t-online.de, ebotcazou@libertysurf.fr, gcc@gcc.gnu.org, sam@rfc1149.net, schwab@suse.de Subject: Re: Rant about ChangeLog entries and commit messages References: <2007-12-02-11-05-39+trackit+sam@rfc1149.net> <200712022136.57819.ebotcazou@libertysurf.fr> <4aca3dc20712021240k19f3eae5j66453276179c401a@mail.gmail.com> <200712022355.23871.ebotcazou@libertysurf.fr> <4aca3dc20712021621n39a036d2u21f471f231dfffe@mail.gmail.com> <10712031329.AA20246@vlsi1.ultra.nyu.edu> From: Alexandre Oliva Errors-To: aoliva@oliva.athome.lsd.ic.unicamp.br Date: Sun, 16 Dec 2007 03:03:00 -0000 In-Reply-To: <10712031329.AA20246@vlsi1.ultra.nyu.edu> (Richard Kenner's message of "Mon\, 03 Dec 2007 08\:29\:16 EST") Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.1.50 (gnu/linux) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Mailing-List: contact gcc-help@gcc.gnu.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Id: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: Sender: gcc-owner@gcc.gnu.org X-SW-Source: 2007-12/txt/msg00453.txt.bz2 On Dec 3, 2007, kenner@vlsi1.ultra.nyu.edu (Richard Kenner) wrote: > In my view, ChangeLog is mostly "write-only" from a developer's > perspective. It's a document that the GNU project requires us to produce > for ... a good example of compliance with the GPL: 5. Conveying Modified Source Versions. a) The work must carry prominent notices stating that you modified it, and giving a relevant date. FWIW, I've used ChangeLogs to find problems a number of times in my 14 years of work in GCC, and I find them very useful. When I need more details, web-searching for the author of the patch and some relevant keywords in the ChangeLog will often point at the relevant e-mail, so burdening people with adding a direct URL seems pointless to me. It's pessimizing the common case for a small optimization in far less common cases. -- Alexandre Oliva http://www.lsd.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/ FSF Latin America Board Member http://www.fsfla.org/ Red Hat Compiler Engineer aoliva@{redhat.com, gcc.gnu.org} Free Software Evangelist oliva@{lsd.ic.unicamp.br, gnu.org}