Subject: 24.0.50; change logs in source code
From: "Drew Adams" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2010 12:46:20 -0800
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

emacs -Q
 
Visiting wdired.el, I see that this is the complete content of the
`Change log:' entry:
 
;; Google is your friend (previous versions with complete changelogs
;; were posted to gnu.emacs.sources)
 
Please restore the normal, helpful, user-friendly source-file change
logs that were in the author's file.  Emacs users should be able to get
the info they need by consulting only the source code.  They should not
need any Internet access, in particular.
 
This seems like just laziness on the part of Emacs development.
But is also an anti-user policy.
 
(And stop selling Google.  Although I agree that googling can be
helpful.)
 
Other files have similar cop-out text.  In ffap.el the `Change log:'
entry tells you to go ftp the change log (and to go hunt for the
place to ftp it from).
 
Users should not need Internet access to get hold of the source-file
change logs.  At the very least, they should be able to visit another
local file.  And that file location should be clearly indicated in the
source library, so a simple find-file-at-point will go there.
 
Emacs source files contain lots of text such as `Todo list' that is less
important than change-log history.  Users deserve better than telling
them to go search the Internet for change history.

Change logs are not just for Emacs developers' internal use.
They are for users.

In GNU Emacs 24.0.50.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600)
 of 2010-11-09 on 3249CTO
Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 5.1.2600
configured using `configure --with-gcc (4.4) --no-opt --cflags
-Ic:/imagesupport/include'