Arch Linux

cmtptr

Member

Registered: 2008-09-01

Posts: 135

Change log verbage tense

Not really important, but I found this curious and am interested to hear others' logic:

I've always found it natural to word change logs/repository submission comments in the past tense, such as...

fixed feature x so that it doesn't produce bug y
added a new feature z to whatever.c

Since I've started working in a large software development team at a company, I've noticed that there are a lot of people who word their change logs in the preset tense, such as...

fix feature x so that it doesn't produce bug y
add a new feature z to whatever.c

I've also seen this behavior in some of the change logs of major Linux projects; futhermore, git's default automerge comment is worded in the present tense (something along the lines of "merge branch x to y").

What's up with that?  Is there any conscious reason behind it, or do some people just seem to find that natural the way I did with the past tense?  What do you consider proper change log comment grammar?

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: Change log verbage tense

I'm trying to be sarcastic, but maybe it's because "proper" English isn't spoken by most of the world.

PirateJonno

Forum Fellow

From: New Zealand

Registered: 2009-04-13

Posts: 372

Re: Change log verbage tense

I think I read an explicit reason for this somewhere not too long ago, possibly from the kernel guidelines to using git. Can't seem to find it though...

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"You can watch for your administrator to install the latest kernel with watch uname -r" - From the watch man page

Anikom15

Banned

From: United States

Registered: 2009-04-30

Posts: 836

Website

Re: Change log verbage tense

I think it has to do with programming being in present tense.

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Personally, I'd rather be back in Hobbiton.

bremarv

Member

Registered: 2010-03-12

Posts: 26

Re: Change log verbage tense

When other people apply the patch/changeset it's what happens when you apply it, not something already happening. i.e. when applying patch x you are mergin branch b into a and fixing feature c and so on.

Might be the reason, but I doubt most people think about it.

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"As a former philosophy major, it disturbs me to think that things disappear when no one is looking at them, but that's exactly what happens in Python" - Mark Pilgrim

cmtptr

Member

Registered: 2008-09-01

Posts: 135

Re: Change log verbage tense

All sound like pretty good reasons, I suppose.  PirateJonno, I searched for such a reference but all I was able to find was a short guide to properly formatted commit comments, and while it does explicitely say to word them in the present tense it doesn't give a reason why (other than that git's auto comments do it).

Thanks for all the replies.