Re: Odd instructions for Git?

[Simos <simos lists googlemail com>]

On Sat, Apr 4, 2009 at 8:27 PM, Tommi Vainikainen <tvainika gmail com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I was reading http://live.gnome.org/TranslationProject/GitHowTo and
> noticed that it says "It is customary in Git to go for small commits; if
> you have more than one file, commit them separately, with a descriptive
> commit message for each commit. For example, if you edit the Makefile.am
> file for DOC_LINGUAS or the LINGUAS file, it is good to commit the as"
>
> However for me this sounds like contradicting very basic rule of version
> control usage that each commit should contain all logically relevant
> changes together. For example when committing initial translation, I
> think only sane solution is to commit first version of po file together
> with Makefile/LINGUAS change, because those belong logically together.
>
> However now Wiki instructs to work in different way. Are we really
> changing this kind of conventions to adhere some strange Git customs?

Considering that in git it will be OK to write one-line commit
messages (ChangeLog file is not necessary),
I think it is better to have

git commit Makefile.am -m "Added LL to DOC_LINGUAS"
git commit LL.po -m "Added LL translation"
git commit LL/figures/*.png -m "Added screenshots"

instead of

git commit Makefile.am LL.po LL/figures/*.png -m "Added LL to
DOC_LINGUAS, added LL translation and screenshots"
or even
git commit -a -m "Added LL to DOC_LINGUAS, added LL translation and screenshots"

There is a limit for the commit message of 72 characters so that
changelog summaries will appear neat.

These are my own suggestions and are open to debate.
I think it is good to have this discussion (or any git discussion) on
the list, since the switch to git will
take place in a few weeks.

Regards,
Simos