Re: Future suggestion's to assist with changes to git.

From: Boyd Lynn Gerber <gerberb@zenez.com>
Date: Aug 28, 2008, 23:48 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.LNX.1.10.0808281739160.18129@suse104.zenez.com>
In-Reply-To: <20080828233045.GE29609@coredump.intra.peff.net>

On Thu, 28 Aug 2008, Jeff King wrote:

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> On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 05:10:53PM -0600, Boyd Lynn Gerber wrote:
>> Maybe on item could be on the git web site news items could be created to
>> announce backward compatibility changes.  I think most people do visit the
>> main website to look for information.  Having these changes posted there
>> or linked from the main page could be a positive method so something like
>> this will not happen in the future.
>
> Do they? I haven't been to the git web site in quite a long time. Nor
> have I been to (for example) the vim web site. The two things I would
> personally notice are:

I only look at the web after reading the release notes. But I think that if the web site had the notice then there could be no excuse about not having made it public. Sure some people do not read the Release notes or follow the email lists, but maybe we could get those that miss the release notes or new users, a place to look in addition to the email list. I know that it is hard to follow all the mails on the git list.

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>  - a note during upgrade of my system's packages. And this is going to
>    be dependent on the packaging system used. 1.6.0 hasn't hit many
>    distributions yet, so maybe there is still time for this. Gerrit,
>    do you mind putting something into NEWS.Debian about the drop of
>    "git-*" so that people with apt-listchanges will see it?
>
>    For people building from source, we have the Release Notes, but
>    beyond that, I don't know where to put it (and I don't meant the web
>    site is a bad place -- the more places the better, but there is no
>    catch-all place).

+1. I know that I expect break-eges on X.Y for many things. So maybe a note on the website that git uses the second Y for compatiability changes could assist some users.

>  - the command complaining that my use of it is deprecated. In
>    retrospect, we probably should have done this.

I really want to make it possible to avoid any of these complaints in the future. I knew it was comming and had to change my scripts, but I am just trying to provide further methods to announce changes that some may notice that miss the email list message.

I personally look at the change logs and release notes. If something in them makes me really want more information then I go to the project web site to look. I think new users would notice something on the web site and then could realise that maybe some example in old documents could have problem. Just my outloud thinking.

Thanks,

-- Boyd Gerber <gerberb@zenez.com> ZENEZ 1042 East Fort Union #135, Midvale Utah 84047