News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Linus Torvalds: 'I Do No Coding Any More' by heavenlyblue on Sunday July 05, 2020 @05:29PM (#23742205)
Why is the reason to peculiarity not in the comments in the code itself?
Re:Linus Torvalds: 'I Do No Coding Any More' by usrusr on Sunday July 05, 2020 @06:05PM (#23742498)
Comments aren't supposed to state the obvious and at the time it probably was. Commit messages are redundant by definition (everything said in the message is supposedly already there in the diff) so they are like magnets for stating the seemingly obvious.
Re:Linus Torvalds: 'I Do No Coding Any More' by u801e on Sunday July 05, 2020 @09:17PM (#23743765)
> Commit messages are redundant by definition (everything said in the message is supposedly already there in the diff)

Commit messages are far easier to parse and understand compared to a moderate size diff. By reading the commit message before looking at the diff, it really helps in terms of understanding the context of the diff and what to expect.

Re:Linus Torvalds: 'I Do No Coding Any More' by greyhair on Wednesday July 08, 2020 @11:03AM (#23770564)
More than that, I find moderately sized 'git' diffs in PRs to be unreadable. I frequently have to open the full code block to see what is taking place in the source.

Commit messages provide intent, and should reference the original change request to see what the commit was intended to fix.

I would say the whole chain matters.

A good change request (Jira) with defects, and how to recreate the fault, as well as relevant requirements (by reference, not cut-n-paste)

Good comments on the code that is changing. Don't document the defect and how you fixed it, just comment what the code does (if the code is not perfectly clear),

Then a good commit message, referencing the change request, to tie it all together.

It all matters.