Re: [Bug-zile] README-release

[Gary V. Vaughan]

Hi Reuben,

On 16 Aug 2011, at 21:47, Reuben Thomas wrote:
> Now that README-release has been removed, is the README-release gnulib
> module still used?

Yes, though it's not installed by gnulib-tool (in the same way that
COPYING and config.{sub,aux} are installed by bootstrap rather than
gnulib-tool.

> Also, why the change of name? I'm
> trying to stay in sync with gnulib here...

The only major GNU package I've seen that uses the unusual convention
of adding half a dozen variations of README to the root of the project
tree is coreutils, maintained by Paul Eggert, who added README-release
to gnulib too...

The more usual (and IMHO useful) convention among the GNU(like) packages I
have been involved with enough to clone a repo is to put all the stuff
that someone who has downloaded the tarball will need into a top-level file
called README, and all the stuff that maintainers would like to know into
a non-distributed file called HACKING.  I believe Bruno is with me on this
point too: it's way easier, especially for someone who's just unpacked
a distribution tarball and wanting some orientation, to open the one
README file in their favourite editor and search and page around inside it.

Dropping back out to the shell, running a few greps, just to find the
relevant README-thisone, or README-nothisone, is no fun for anyone!

Anyway, if you prefer Paul's approach of using different files rather
than different sections, it's not that difficult for me to run
`cat README README-*|less` when I want to read bits of them.  But I
hope you'll try it out like this for a bit first to see whether you like
it after all =)O|

Cheers,
-- 
Gary V. Vaughan (gary AT gnu DOT org)