[Python-ideas] Using only patches for pulling changes in hg.python.org

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Georg Brandl writes:
 > Am 04.07.2010 17:26, schrieb Antoine Pitrou:
 > > On Sun, 04 Jul 2010 15:46:53 +0200
 > > Dirkjan Ochtman <dirkjan at ochtman.nl> wrote:
 > >> 
 > >> Fourth, one-patch-per-issue is too restrictive. Small commits are useful 
 > >> because they're way easier to review. Concatenate several small commits 
 > >> leading up to a single issue fix into a single patch and it gets much 
 > >> harder to read.
 > > 
 > > I don't agree with that. The commits obviously won't be independent
 > > because they will be motivated by each other (or even dependent on each
 > > other), therefore you have to remember what the other commits do when
 > > reviewing one of them. What's more, when reading "hg log" months or
 > > years later, it is hard to make sense of a single commit because you
 > > don't really know what issue it was meant to contribute to fix.
 > > 
 > > I know that's how Mercurial devs do things, but I don't really like
 > > it.
 > 
 > I think the best of both worlds is to encourage contributors to send
 > more complicated patches in a series of easy-to-review steps, but when
 > committing to Python, make one changeset out of them.

I don't see how this addresses Antoine's problem of connecting commits
to issues at all.

Some ways to address it are (1) require issue numbers in log
messages, if there is an applicable issue (for non-committers, there
should be a patch issue on the tracker, right?) and (2) require that
the commits addressing a single issue be done on a single separate
branch, then merged (which doesn't connect issues to commits, but does
connect a series of commits).

I don't really see why commits should take place in a lump, either.
That makes bisecting less accurate, for one thing.  Nor does it help
with review; the review is already done by the time the commit takes
place, no?  OTOH, people who have a specific interest and want to
review ex post are often going to want the bite-size patches, just as
the original reviewer did, no?