Lübbe Onken wrote:
> Greg Stein wrote:
>> Why this change? Since the last time I spent working on Subversion, now
>> that I'm back, I'm finding a crazy amount of attention spent to the log
>> messages. Adding periods, correcting typos, adjusting indentation, etc.
>> Shoot, I saw somebody correct a log from rev 1400 or so just a week ago.
>
>> What is up with that? Where is the flexibility, and why so much attention?
>
> which is the exact reason why I stopped contributing, even if it were
> only translations. Too much formalism and bureaucracy. If I had only log
> message formatting problems in real life...
Hrm. I'm disappointed to hear when anyone stops contributing, but doubly so
when the stated reasons are so ... fixable. Lübbe, did you make your
concern about "formalism and bureaucracy" known in advance of your decision
to stop contributing? If so, I'll be happy to dig up the archived thread to
see what happened -- I'm certainly not asking you to do that work.
As I said to Greg privately, might it be that (in this case) Arfrever is
contributing to the project in the best way he can with the time he
currently has available -- by reviewing all the commit log messages (and
perhaps even the commits themselves), and fixing up misspellings and such
along the way? Might it be that Arfrever isn't as text-message-happy as,
say, the average young American, and so doesn't recognize words like "tho"
as personality-filled shorthand, but instead as typing errors?
Well-formed, grammatically unambiguous, and correctly spelled log messages
are for the benefit of all today and tomorrow. *Surely* folks can agree
with that. I know I've had to ask for clarification on how to parse a log
message because of missing words or letters in the past. So while we
shouldn't have to check our individual personalities at the door when we
compose log messages, if there's a question regarding the interpretation of
a log message, fixing that problem is more important that preserving our
little bits of personal flavor.
Yes, there's been a lot of post-revprop-change email getting fired off in
recent weeks. And maybe some of it is unnecessary. But I don't want this
thread to result in folks being afraid of fixing up log messages for fear of
a hand smack. I would encourage everyone to find the happy middle ground
here: please keep reviewing log messages, fixing obvious typos, etc., but
if something looks it might be "personal flavor", check that with the
original author before reworking it.
I don't know your history with the project, Lübbe. But we'd enjoy having
you contributing again. What can we reasonably do to make the experience
better this time around?
--
C. Michael Pilato <cmpilato_at_collab.net>
CollabNet <> www.collab.net <> Distributed Development On Demand
Received on 2008-09-18 16:03:42 CEST