Re: Guidelines
On Sun, 20 Mar 1994, Bill Mitchell wrote:
> On Sun, 20 Mar 1994, Charlie Brady wrote:
>
> > On Thu, 17 Mar 1994, Bill Mitchell wrote:
> >[...]
> > I think that Bill's reasoning is sound (apart from the "vi" to "emacs"
> > change). The only problem that I have with it is that it might be
> > ambiguous, whereas a context diff is definitive.. Perhaps both
>
> Definitive, but not comprehensive. In the case of less-177, all the
> changes show up in files which are created by running the configure
> script, and by doing further linux-specific edits to files created
> by the script. The context diff reports the existance of these new
> files, but not their contents, and not what linux-specific configuration
> script responses and subsequent linux-specific file edits produced them.
>
> > need to exist, the context diff so that so that anyone can easily rebuild
> > exactly the distributed binary, and the CHANGES file as a resource to a
> > subsequent developer.
Well that might depend on what type of context diff you have - it is
certainly possible to generate a context diff (to be used by patch of
course) containing the full text of any newly created files. I'm missing
the diff man page on this system, so can't quote the relevant options.
So I repeat - a patch file is a definitive method of allowing anyone to
easily build from source which will match exactly the distributed binary.
The diff should be supplemented with a README such as Bill suggests which
lists the steps taken by the developer to generate the diff.
On the subject of default editors, I agree that vi is a bit unusual to
throw at newbies as a default, but then so is emacs. pico is very easy to
use, joe a little less so. What do people think of us making some effort
to add code wherever necessary so that the default editor is set by an
environment variable - VISUAL or EDITOR for instance? The editor of
choice can then be set at install time, or adduser time.
Charlie Brady * (W) charlieb@tplrd.tpl.oz.au * (H) charlieb@budge.apana.org.au
"Make it as simple as possible - | Tel: (02) 413 6838 ____Telectronics__| /\__
but no simpler" Einstein, A | Fax: (02) 413 6868 Pacing Systems \/
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