Re: Make commit messages optional

From: Philip Oakley <philipoakley@iee.email>
Date: Apr 8, 2022, 08:15 UTC
Message-ID: <5d6df8fa-eaea-4ead-e966-8efe60784409@iee.email>
In-Reply-To: <7ED89912-2E10-4356-9C61-14B90EC0719C@icloud.com>

Hi Jurgen

On 08/04/2022 04:35, jurgen_gjoncari@icloud.com wrote:

Show 5 quoted lines

> I think that often commit messages are unnecessary. I propose that by default a user should be able to commit without a message. 
>
> I don't think this would be a problem from the UX point of view, because a user could get a lot of information about a change, from the history of the GitHub repository, such as from the time of change, and seeing the diff. 
>
> I think that making commit messages options wouldn't even be a problem for retro compatibility because the feature would remain still functional for those who would want to use it.

Isn't this an ideal candidate for an alias that simply passes in the empty message?

However, it's worth reviewing and doing a retrospective about commit messages and who they are there to inform.

They (these supposedly informative messages) used to frustrate me many years ago. I already _knew_ what I was doing, and it was 'obvious', what even needed saying (so say nothing).

The Git project's style has been informative in showing how to provide a well focussed concise message that should be understandable to others, to your future self, and help clarify one's current understanding of the problem at hand. Often the last point will mean one upgrades the code to meet the real need.

-- Philip