Re: Why are so many great packages not trying to get included in GNU Emacs? WAS: Re: Making Emacs more friendly to newcomers

[Basil L. Contovounesios]

Konstantin Kharlamov <hi-angel@yandex.ru> writes:

> On Sat, 2020-06-13 at 20:31 +0100, Basil L. Contovounesios wrote:
>> Konstantin Kharlamov <hi-angel@yandex.ru> writes:
>> 
>> > FTR, I am all for having good commit messages. It is IMO a must have for 
>> > any
>> > git
>> > project. But having a list of function names with description for each does
>> > not
>> > make one.
>> 
>> FWIW, one great benefit of this list for me is that I can quickly
>> 'git log --grep' for all commits that mention a particular definition.
>> Doing the same with 'git log -G' is painfully slower and with a far
>> lower signal:noise ratio.
>
> You can get that purely with git by using option `-L` of gitlong. It has 
> syntax
> `-L :<funcname>:<file>`.
>
> To give you example, I just looked at my recent change in python.el, and the
> diff says the region belongs to 
> `python-font-lock-keywords-maximum-decoration`.
> So I execute:
>
>       git log -L :python-font-lock-keywords-maximum-
> decoration:lisp/progmodes/python.el
>
> And I get a log of commits that changed that function. Git version 2.27.0

And what if a commit message references a particular variable or
function without touching the file that they're defined in?  I'm talking
about more general xrefing.

>> > Instead it should be an overview of what is done, why, and how.
>> 
>> That, or at the very least linking to the relevant bug/thread
>> discussions, is always a good thing to do and encouraged.
>> 
>> > Suppose you have a patch that deduplicates the same code pattern across 34
>> > functions by factoring it out to a single short function. Do you really 
>> > need
>> > that list?
>> 
>> No, in such cases there are shortcuts you can take, such as "all callers
>> changed".
>
> Oh, is that something new?

It's older than I've been around these parts (~2016).

> I'm just wondering, why when I did the change to
> replace hex regexes with xdigit 
> https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=36167 I had to write all 
> hundreds
> of functions instead of a one liner "all callers are changed"?

You didn't exactly.  It is possible to take shortcuts depending on the
context.  See the file CONTRIBUTE or (info "(standards) Change Logs")
https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Change-Logs.html.

-- 
Basil