[josm-dev] Commit message not empty

David Earl david at frankieandshadow.com
Wed Apr 22 14:54:28 BST 2009


On 22/04/2009 14:44, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 1:33 PM, Frederik Ramm <frederik at remote.org> wrote:
>> I am surprised that it requires explanation. Can you imagine the
>> usefulness of http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/changesets without
>> descriptions?
> 
> Nobody is arguing that detailed commit messages are a bad idea, but
> that undescriptive brief commit messages that tell you nothing that
> were obviously put in for no other reason than JOSM whining about a
> commit message being required (while it's *not* required by the
> protocol) are worse than nothing:
> 
> I'd rather have no "commit=" key on commit messages than "commit=some
> edits", "commit=update", "commit=fuck you" or "commit=asdf". People
> are *always* going to produce commit messages with no useful
> information whether commit messages are obligatory or not, and as
> someone who reads changelogs I'd rather have nothing (no commit
> mesage) than something that's worse than nothing ("asdf").

If you can commit without a comment, then we will get accidentally blank 
comments (I find myself doing this with svn sometimes - I press the 
button and then realise I didn't give a reason). I'd rather be saved 
from my own mistake than pander to the un-cooperativeness of a few 
people in helping others in what is supposed to be a co-operative 
project. I say leave it as it is.

David




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