[Python-Dev] Commit messages: please avoid temporal ambiguity

[R. David Murray]

On Tue, 10 May 2011 17:45:44 +0400, Oleg Broytman <phd at phdru.name> wrote:
> On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 09:33:13AM -0400, R. David Murray wrote:
> > commit:
> >     11999: sync based on comparing mtimes, not mtime to system clock
> > NEWS:
> >     Issue 11999: fixed sporadic sync failure mailbox.Maildir due to its
> >     trying to detect mtime changes by comparing to the system clock
> >     instead of to the previous value of the mtime.
> > 
> > commit:
> >     #11873: Improve test regex so random directory names don't cause test to fail
> > NEWS:
> >     Issue #11873: Change regex in test_compileall to fix occasional
> >     failures when when the randomly generated temporary path happened to
> >     match the regex.
> > 
> > You will note the *active* verbs "fixed", "improve", and "change"
> > figure in there prominently :)
> 
>    Why "fixed" is in the past tense, but "improve", and "change" are in
> present tense?
> 
>    I use past tense to describe what I did on the code, and present
> simple to describe what the new code does when running. For example:
> 
> "Fixed a bug in time comparison: compare mtime to mtime, not mtime to system clock"
> 
>    I.e., "fixed" - that what I did, and "compare" is what the code does.
> 
> (I used an excerpt from above only for the example, not to correct
> something.)

Yes, that's a good point.  I'll try to be more consistent about that
in the future.  Change should have been Changed.

--
R. David Murray           http://www.bitdance.com