Re: *** empty log message *** is a no-no

[Denys Duchier <Denys.Duchier@ps.uni-sb.de>]

Steinar Bang <sb@metis.no> writes:

> My experience with CVS (and RCS) tells me that this is a no-no.
> 
> The most important thing you get from these versioning systems is IMO
> the human readable log of changes.  If you have access to the
> commitlog you can search for keywords and find out when changes were
> made. 

I absolutely concur.  I was about to suggest the very same thing.
Personally, when I implement something new, I usually include full
documentation in the log message.  This way (1) others reading the
logs are well informed about what I have done, (2) when I get around
to writing actual documentation, I already have an outline of it in
the logs.  When fixing a tricky bug, it is also a good idea to
document your understanding of it.  My view is that the CVS logs serve
the dual purpose of keeping everyone informed about on-going progress
in the project as well as of being a persistent repository of useful
information/documentation.

Cheers,

-- 
Dr. Denys Duchier			Denys.Duchier@ps.uni-sb.de
Forschungsbereich Programmiersysteme	(Programming Systems Lab)
Universitaet des Saarlandes, Geb. 45	http://www.ps.uni-sb.de/~duchier
Postfach 15 11 50			Phone: +49 681 302 5618
66041 Saarbruecken, Germany		Fax:   +49 681 302 5615