ChangeLog's: do we have to?

[Richard Kenner]

> After 20 years of hacking on GCC I feel like I have literally wasted 
> days of my life typing out ChangeLog entries that could have easily been 
> generated programmatically.
> 
> Can someone refresh my memory here, what are the remaining arguments for 
> requiring ChangeLog entries?

I take the position that any ChangeLog entry that could have been generated
automatically is not a good one.  Yes, the list of functions changed could
be generated automatically. (Isn't there actually a way to do that in
emacs?  I could have sworn I saw it, though I never used it much.)  But the
*purpose* of the change to that function can't be generated automatically
because the ChangeLog entry is the only place that should have that
information.  The comments should say what a function currently does, but
isn't the place for a history lesson.  That data belongs only in ChangeLog

In other words, I believe that these three things:

- code
- comments
- ChangeLog entry

should all contain unique information (to be clear, not *all* of it is
unique, but *some* should be) that can't be derived from the other item.
Therefore each serves a critical purpose.