Re: Script to generate ChangeLogs automatically

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

   > harder by requiring a complicated, hard to understand tool like git to
   > just be able to poke around in history.  

   As with other things, people become more familiar with it over time.

I dunno, I've used git since just about when it was created.  I still
struggle with it, and still fight it on a daily basis.

   > Personally I'd rather not spend time learning a dozen VCS and rather
   > spend it on doing actual work.  Most of my usage of git is via vc-mode
   > in Emacs, is there some way of getting this information from there in
   > a VCS agnostic manner?  I did not find anything like that, which is
   > the big benefit of ChangeLog-style files (be them autogenerated, or
   > manual).

   I've not tried using vc-mode for this, but Paul Smith already explained 
   how to use it for a "git blame" operation 
   <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-standards/2018-02/msg00000.html>.

I don't see how "git blame" (which is useful, and available via
vc-mode) replaces what what a ChangeLog style format provides, it
won't tell me anything about how functions have moved, been renamed,
etc.  You'll need go back and forth, up and down keeping track of the
exact changes made to a file, it will also not work well if you have
renamed files, or a function being moved between files.

"git log", specially -L is problematic as well, since it is utterly
broken for the majority of languages, it is also _very_ slow.  It also
returns the wrong results the majority of the time from my experience
with it.

I htink that the hack made by Siddhesh is a good compromise, it gets
us to the point of something that makes it easy for people who don't
like to write ChangeLog entries, but also gives those who prefer them
a means to not pull their hair out when trying to use git.