[core-workflow] the Misc/NEWS problem

[Carol Willing]

On 8/5/15 10:43 PM, Zachary Ware wrote:
> On Thursday, August 6, 2015, Brett Cannon <bcannon at gmail.com 
> <mailto:bcannon at 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
>
>
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-- 
*Carol Willing*
Developer | Willing Consulting
https://willingconsulting.com
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