tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3575421168816814786.post2298125025853076518..comments2023-10-25T07:10:58.697-07:00Comments on Coder's Log: Release logs are important!zeenixhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04142631863736897222noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3575421168816814786.post-84455993732196775582011-06-27T16:25:32.464-07:002011-06-27T16:25:32.464-07:00Felipe,
1. If you don't follow the usual conv...Felipe,<br /><br />1. If you don't follow the usual convention (NEWS file), there is a very good possibility that people assume the information doesn't exist and hence "ignore" it.<br /><br />2. I did not only stressed the maintainer to provide the release notes but also the packager to use it when it *is* provided.<br /><br />3. I wrote this blog entry after talking to a guy who does a lot of packaging for fedora and he not only agrees but complained that he is sick&tired of stressing this to upstream maintainers and getting ignored.zeenixhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04142631863736897222noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3575421168816814786.post-9383594112859422662011-06-27T16:12:31.187-07:002011-06-27T16:12:31.187-07:00I call bullshit on this.
First of all, the exampl...I call bullshit on this.<br /><br />First of all, the example you provide (Git), is actually a counter-example.<br /><br />The Git project doesn't have any NEWS file. It does in fact have <a href="http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/RelNotes/1.7.5.4.txt" rel="nofollow">release notes</a>, but as you can see from the link, those are actually ignored by the Fedora packagers.<br /><br />It seems the actual text is provided manually by the packager in the "<a href="http://www.spinics.net/lists/fedora-package-announce/msg61463.html" rel="nofollow">update information</a>".Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10808800461296761039noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3575421168816814786.post-55329652014649898772011-06-20T14:56:03.415-07:002011-06-20T14:56:03.415-07:00I always browse through the release logs provided ...I always browse through the release logs provided by PackageKit with excitement. They also give me an idea of the severity of changes to expect. Sometimes I choose not to update a package. <br /><br />It bothers me when I see packages with no notes! C'mon! If you don't take the time to tell the user what changed why should they take the time to update their software?Leifhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07301702021104500112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3575421168816814786.post-53765778404133806212011-06-20T13:33:06.231-07:002011-06-20T13:33:06.231-07:00Debian & Ubuntu do a decent job with their cha...Debian & Ubuntu do a decent job with their changelogs in their packages. I agree it would be nice if Fedora would more consistently do the same since the update description is very visible in Fedora.Jeremy Bichahttp://jeremy@bicha.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3575421168816814786.post-90888155528931163192011-06-20T10:46:41.464-07:002011-06-20T10:46:41.464-07:00If the commit messages are proper in your version ...If the commit messages are proper in your version control system, then creating a technical release notes is not a big deal. If your bug tracker has the feature of targeting bugs to a milestone, then it become pretty easy to do so.<br /><br />The biggest issue which you pointed out is that most of them still forget that non-technical release notes is important. I don't know much about inner working of git, but surely want to know about which bugs have been fixed and what new features are added. I might not need all the new features, but probably once in a while, one or two features might become usefulManishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06368396849726846707noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3575421168816814786.post-43883650782536411072011-06-20T10:27:11.850-07:002011-06-20T10:27:11.850-07:00I think that since ChangeLog files have become obs...I think that since ChangeLog files have become obsolete in favor of VCS commit logs, people sometimes forget that NEWS files still have a purpose.Josh Tripletthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02593171817329248190noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3575421168816814786.post-75084843315045628432011-06-20T09:39:13.615-07:002011-06-20T09:39:13.615-07:00Release log? Not sure what you mean. Do you mean c...Release log? Not sure what you mean. Do you mean change logs or release notes?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3575421168816814786.post-50452278794822655682011-06-20T09:30:21.011-07:002011-06-20T09:30:21.011-07:00Agreed. This is a huge personal annoyance of mine ...Agreed. This is a huge personal annoyance of mine and I strongly encourage developers to write meaningful changelogs, written from an end-user impact perspective. It doesn't take long and users really appreciate it.<br /><br />As a developer I try to do this for any software I'm in charge of releasing.Blue Lightninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12270927787710836050noreply@blogger.com