Re: Following etc/NEWS on the development branch

[Kévin Le Gouguec]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>>     git diff @{1} etc/NEWS
>> 
>> "@{1}" means "the previous value of the current branch"
>> (cf. gitrevisions(7)).
>
> Why not
>
>    git log -p --since="<last date I updated>" etc/NEWS
>
> ?
>
> It's easier, since it frees the user from remembering the tricky
> syntax of reflog-revisions.
>
> Or how about simply using "C-x h C-x v h" with NEWS the current
> buffer?  One can stop reading when one gets to the date of the
> previous update from Git.

Right; my suggestion came from assuming that (1) remembering the date of
the previous update is bothersome (2) one can set an alias to hide away
the reflog syntax (which I also won't fault anyone for not wanting to
waste brain cells on):

    git config alias.wassup 'diff @{1} etc/NEWS'

>> While I personally spend a few minutes reading every commit after
>> fetching[1], I wouldn't fault anyone for not watching etc/NEWS
>> conscientiously.
>
> I wouldn't, either.  But people who are interested in tracking the
> development, not just in having the latest version, should do that,
> and if they don't, there should be little surprise that some
> developments are left unnoticed.  Right?

Absolutely!  I'm mostly pondering ways to make changes to NEWS easier to
track, although I admit I don't think this would entirely solve the
issues raised in the parent thread.

> OTOH, it shouldn't be hard to subscribe to emacs-diffs and only read
> the changes to NEWS in it with some simple filter.  This is Emacs,
> after all.

That ought to work just as well, yes.