Re: ChangeLog?

[Robert J. Chassell]

Miles Bader wrote,

   ... I've read the info file now, and it seems pretty explicit and
   clear about the distinction between the two types of logs.

Yes.  I wrote that text years and years ago with wording intended to
create such a distinction.  At that time, when people referred to a
`change log', it was often difficult to determine to which of several
types of change log they refered.

I am glad to see that the distinction has taken hold and that when an
expert says `change log' (which can be written in various ways), he or
she means only the more general change log and not the per-file change
log modified by CVS.

This suggests a change in the documentation in

        emacs/man/files.texi   
        Types of Log File

that is different from what I previously suggested.  

You might want to change this proposed wording to include references
to Arch and Subversion and perhaps to other version control systems.
I do not know anything about them and and written this with that
ignorance in mind.

This new wording replaces the last paragraph of the node, the
paragraph that begins with the sentence


       When you use version control, you can use just the per-file log
    if you wish, or you can use both kinds of logs.

Here is my current sample wording:

    Some projects use several different version control systems at the
    same time, synchronizing changes among them.

    In Emacs development under CVS, the practice is to record
    @emph{all} coding changes in the more general @file{ChangeLog} but
    not changes in documentation or in the @file{NEWS} and
    @file{FOR-RELEASE} files.  Those latter changes are recorded only
    in the per-file log, a log which may be inaccessible to someone
    using a different version control system.  (Other projects may
    work differently.)

    Thus, in Emacs development when both types of log are available
    and when recording changes in code, you should use @strong{both}
    the per-file log and the more general @file{ChangeLog}

    In such a situation you typically will want to write just one
    entry for each change.  You can write the entry in
    @file{ChangeLog}, using the @kbd{C-x 4 a} command (@pxref{Change
    Log}), and then copy it to the per-file log, when that exists,
    buffer when you check in the change.  Or, when using the @kbd{C-x
    v v} command (@pxref{Log Buffer}), you can write the entry in the
    per-file log buffer while checking in the change, and later use
    the @kbd{C-x v a} command to copy it to the more general
    @file{ChangeLog} (@pxref{Change Logs and VC}).

--
    Robert J. Chassell                         
    address@hidden                         GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
    http://www.rattlesnake.com                  http://www.teak.cc