Re: GNU-style ChangeLog merge driver for Git

[Mike Frysinger]

On Sunday 10 February 2008, Bruno Haible wrote:
> Micah Cowan wrote:
> > Are you claiming that people who are capable of fetching the sources
> > with "git clone" will be incapable of "git log"?
>
> Most of them, yes, sure. The "git clone" command is shown in the
> homepage <http://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib/> and in gnulib's README.
> Millions of people can use it without prerequisite knowledge. The
> "git log" command OTOH is only available to people familiar with git.

`git log` is no more foreign than any other scm log.  you could even check in 
a small ChangeLog that merely reads "this is generated automatically; please 
use `git log`".

> > maintaining ChangeLogs is redundant work, when you're already entering
> > the very same information into the version control system.
>
> Please place yourself at the position of the user who builds and runs a
> program, not the developer. If all packages have different ways of
> configuring the package, of showing version history, of listing the
> dependencies, etc. building packages for one's own use is too much of a
> frustrating experience. This is why a unified 'configure' invocation scheme
> was needed; this is also why a unified view of the version history is
> needed.

how is the user's position relevant ?  users will not be using gnulib, 
developers will.  it is unrealistic to think a developer will be unfamiliar 
with a scm log function but capable of leveraging gnulib.
-mike

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