On 8/5/15 10:43 PM, Zachary Ware wrote:
On Thursday, August 6, 2015, Brett Cannon <bcannon@gmail.com> wrote:
If we ever want to have a nice workflow where we can automate as much as possible, we need to figure out a way deal with our most common merge conflict: Misc/NEWS. Thanks to shifts in the format between different minor versions the file is pretty much guaranteed to have a conflict when doing a merge up a version.

So how do we solve this? I can remember 3 possible solutions that have been proposed previously:
  1. A single file per entry
  2. A single file per release version of Python
  3. Automating it based on commit messages
I personally prefer #3 as I hate repeating myself since I just copy and paste the first line(s) of my commits to Misc/NEWS as it is anyway (basically up to the first pair of newlines). We would need a way to signal that the commit message contains nothing useful for the to-be-generated NEWS file when it's simply a fix for a previous commit (probably some marker that is somewhat inconspicuous like a dash on its own line or something). In terms of the section of the NEWS file that a commit belongs, that can once again be a marker or honestly something we drop or infer based on what files were edited in the commit.

See also http://bugs.python.org/issue18967, which even has a couple of sample implementations.

Thanks Zach. This issue has interesting reading.

The crux of that issue's discussion balances: a) the desire for automation of generating the NEWS file with b) the desire to provide useful information to the users.

Something similar to Firefox's approach https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/39.0/releasenotes/ may be reasonable. Putting implementation and display aside for the moment, the Firefox approach gives: 1) user friendly info on a subset of news/release items and 2) a link to a comprehensive list of changes.

Even if one wanted a text file similar to the current NEWS file, one could still take the Firefox approach. Put user friendly highlights for a subset of key issues (which would require some manual intervention though much less than now) and follow that with a comprehensive list of changes using one of the proposed options based on commit messages.

Carol


--
Zach
(On an iPad)


--
Sent from Gmail Mobile


_______________________________________________
core-workflow mailing list
core-workflow@python.org
https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/core-workflow
This list is governed by the PSF Code of Conduct: https://www.python.org/psf/codeofconduct


--
Carol Willing
Developer | Willing Consulting
https://willingconsulting.com