On Sat, 2002-04-06 at 08:16, Billinghurst, David (CRTS) wrote:
> Jim,
>
> Are there any guidelines for CVS commits? I am used to working
> on gcc, which requires:
>
> - each directory to have a ChangeLog file that is updated for every commit.
> I found this a pain at first, but now think it is a great idea.
>
> - Copyright dates to be updated to reflect changes.
>
> - The testsuite to be updated. If a bug is fixed then the test should
> fail before the patch and pass after. If a new feature is added
> then it should be tested.
This is an excellent question. We haven't really addressed these issues
yet. The GCC people have been doing open source development with a large
group of developers a lot longer than we have.
> So:
>
> - What is copyright status of maxima?
Ugh. That's a good question. Most of the files in Maxima are copyright
William Schelter. Now that he has passed away, I assume that the
copyright legally belongs to his family. I suppose we will have to
contact them at some point. I thought about this quite a while ago, but
thought it insensitive to bother the family about such things so close
to his death.
> - Shall I start ChangeLog files (we can always delete them).
I personally believe that detailed ChangeLog's are a relic of the days
before CVS was common. We have really been using the CVS log as our
changelog. I believe there are tools to generate ChangeLog files
automatically from CVS records, but I haven't investigated them yet. I
prefer to have people write CVS commit messages suitable for inclusion
in ChangeLogs.
Do others have opinions about ChangeLogs?
> - Now I guess we don't want to fiddle with the existing tests, as they
> seem to date back a while. Shall I start new test file.
Yes, please.
Thanks,
Jim