
Show HN: Commit Comments – build commit messages in code comments - Zezima
https://github.com/thebearjew/commit-comments
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jedberg
Presumably this is so you don't forget about a bunch of small changes when
making a large commit. However, for me, right before I do a commit, I always
do a diff to make sure what I'm about to commit is what I intended to, which
has the nice side effect of seeing all the changes and reminding me for the
commit message.

Is this not the common way most people commit?

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saurik
I do a -p and work my way through all of the hunks, pulling out a cohesive
"story" of multiple separate commits from the work that I did, sometimes
editing hunks as I go to "backport" some changes to fit other parts of the
story.

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dpcx
-p? Is this on git-commit, or something else?

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jtwb
git add -p

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jheriko
doesn't this encourage the bad practice of doing large commits containing
multiple things instead of independent and discrete changes?

i guess its still very useful if you are working somewhere where that bad
practice is enforced.

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davegauer
It could probably be abused in the way you describe. But I'm not sure it
encourages it. I think it's a clever idea and seems like it could be handy
even if you do nice, tidy commits.

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jheriko
well, it seems not very useful if you are doing a discrete piece of work
because you have one short comment to make, not a list...

maybe encourage is the wrong word, but it seems like a useless tool if you are
doing things in (what i perceive to be) the right way.

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Zezima
Agreed. My motivation for making this was the complete lack of detail in my
peers' commit messages. They had no problem writing a semi-descriptive commit
title, but glossed over numerous (yet small) changes entirely.

Ironically, this project I would not use myself! Mostly because I am in the
practice of the Git workflow.

My goal was to make something which was easy to use, and gets someone in the
habit of thinking about/listing all changes in a commit.

I certainly hope I'm not encouraging the bad behavior I'm trying to prevent!

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jheriko
i think encourage was the wrong word.

i can still see it being useful, like i said. well done for making something
and sharing it like this.

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cphoover
What advantage does this have over git blame view?

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WorldMaker
Presumably the impetus is that if you fix a bunch of small things in a single
commit it might be easier to compile the list of small things you changed by
noting them as comments as you fix them rather than trying to remember them
after the fact when it comes time to write a commit log for that commit.

That said, philosophically I'd personally prefer to just commit the small
features individually as a set of small commits, therefore you get a better
git blame/praise experience with the end result, but I realize there is a wide
spectrum of preferences on commit size and style.

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Zezima
Yes, that was my intention when making this project. I prefer the practice of
making very small changes and committing frequently with opulent use of
branches.

However, many of my peers and co-workers have a hard time following the small-
commit workflow, so this project is really for them.

Being able to mark small (but significant) changes in your code as you code
definitely helps reduce some ambiguity in commit messages.

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joncalhoun
Some feedback on that regard - if you could note line numbers or anything
really w/ some of these it would probably help more than just messages. Eg
"Concatenated strings in HelloWorld.js#12"

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Zezima
Having the source & line number makes these much more useful.

This is great feedback, thank you!

