Re: [Libreoffice] [Libreoffice-commits] .: Branch 'libreoffice-3-3' - starmath/source

At 5:15am -0500 Fri, 11 Feb 2011, Jan Holesovsky wrote:
> On 2011-02-10 at 13:12 -0500, Kevin Hunter wrote:
> > Do we have guidelines for commit messages? I ask because I think
> > it would be helpful to include just a smidgen more information in
> > them than a reference to various bugzillas.

> My favorite form of the first line is:
>
> area: Fixed this in that and the other thing, fdo#12345.
>
> 'Area' gives the overview what is it about, most notably when the
> commits are part of some bigger picture; in my case I use that for
> the wikihelp, like:
>
> wikihelp: Improve check for existence of the localized help,
> fdo#33258.

That's exactly what I was thinking when I asked that question.  From my 
perspective, as I'm only able to read emails and code in *small* 
snippets of time, this style of commit message would help me stay 
abreast and reduce a fair amount my "settling time" to get the proper 
context for a patch.

> Would be great if it become more widely used, but OTOH I think we
> are still not in a situation to force that by a hook, or something.

I'm not about forcing.  Guidelines are guidelines, and are only usable 
as a metric or request.  We are a bazaar, and that means we accept the 
efforts of those of us who actually, you know, do work.  (I'll point out 
that I hardly count in that measure.)

The perhaps more direct question is, beyond you and me, would others 
*committing developers* appreciate having a commit message guideline? 
Something along the lines of what you have just proposed?  I'm not 
talking about forcing anyone to do anything, but encouraging developers 
to put slightly more effort into their commit messages.

Cheers,

Kevin