[IPython-dev] ChangLog vs changes.txt

[Stéfan van der Walt]

2008/6/12 Fernando Perez <fperez.net at gmail.com>:
> If we couple this with a policy of making single commits for each
> reasonably atomic change, the bzr log should give an excellent view of
> the project, and the --short log option becomes a nice summary.

I spoke to some Launchpad guys last night, and they assured me that
they are working on an improved log display, like the one in olive.
While not ideal, the following view is marginally more useful:

http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ipython/ipython/trunk/changes

As for the folding back:

- The 'pull' command is really only for mirroring branches.  If you
don't want an identical copy of a branch, you shouldn't need to pull.

- If two branches diverge (which happens when you add revisions to
*both* branches at the node where they were split), a merge is
necessary to bring them together again.  In SVN, we were used to doing
"svn update", which then brought all the changes from the trunk into
your local working copy.  Only if there was a conflict were you
required to do a merge.  In bzr, these merges are no longer optional
(and you are forced to check in before merging, which is a good
idea!).

Since bzr needs to track those merges, you can also see them in the
log file.  If you prefer, you may choose to suppress these log
entries, but with sensical merge messages (as David suggested), they
become useful.

I suspect they bother us mainly because merging has become such a
scary word in the SVN world.  In the end, it is more of a display
issue, that, to some extent, you have worked around by having an
external release notes file.

I've satisfied my own concerns about bzr, but if you have any further
concerns, I'd gladly research the issue further.

Regards
Stéfan