Rant about ChangeLog entries and commit messages

[Robert Dewar]

Hans-Peter Nilsson wrote:

> The comment *in the code* is lacking, other than that I don't
> see much point in your rant; it's all been said before, for one.
> It usually takes a while for newcomers to understand the
> process, in particular the what-not-why of ChangeLogs... ;)

I actually think that often it is helpful to have the why in
changelogs. Yes, this should never take the place of commments
in the code, and that is a failing you want to watch out for,
but sometimes a global motivation for a chage would make a
changelog entry easier to understand.

If all the changelog entry says is something like

(xyz): new function

I don't see much point, since a diff can always easily tell
you *what* was changed.
> 
> brgds, H-P