
Epic commit message - fexl
https://github.com/chkoreff/Fexl/commit/23f32badb0ab3772a4eddeb8e45d85fe5bb287f2
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klibertp
I wrote a few similar commit messages - mainly upon merges, but sometimes when
commiting small, but important changes too. The result: I was ridiculed and
laughed at... I even seem to remember that someone said I was "unfulfilled
writer" (believe me, in my language that was much more unpleasant...).

I can't help but think that majority of programmers are just illiterate and
they feel threatened when someone actually has the will (as you can probably
see from this post my skill isn't all that great either) to write...

~~~
masklinn
> The result: I was ridiculed and laughed at...

Well fuck these people, I for one am sick and tired of looking for _why_ a
code section was changed in ways I don't understand in the log or blame and
getting "changed stuff" back. I'd much rather people explained clearly (and
verbosely if needed) what the bloody hell they're committing this change for.

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sjtgraham
It's a little bit cheesy to submit something that you did yourself and
describe it as epic (no snark intended).

Source: contact in whois for domain listed in OP's profile is the same as the
author of commit in git log.

Related: My favourite pull request ever
<http://github.com/ericf/yui3-gallery/pull/21>

~~~
Narretz
The submitter name is also the github repo's name ...

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lylejohnson
If I had to choose, I'd pick this commit message over "bug fixes" or other
similarly uninformative commit messages.

~~~
JoachimSchipper
Actually, I think this is a really good commit message, period. Sure, you
don't want to detail _every_ change to this extent, but important
architectural fixes are fine.

(That said, speculating about the future in a medium where you don't
necessarily record "well, that didn't work" and cannot go back to add
something may not be optimal.)

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jasonkostempski
Would have been hilarious if at the end of all that we see a single line
change in the diff and it's just a deletion.

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csmattryder
Well, technically, it's not.

It's just a long commit message. Nothing's really 'epic' about it, beyond
being rather informative.

~~~
milkshakes
ep·ic [ep-ik] adjective

1\. noting or pertaining to a long poetic composition, usually centered upon a
hero, in which a series of great achievements or events is narrated in
elevated style: Homer's Iliad is an epic poem.

2\. resembling or suggesting such poetry: an epic novel on the founding of the
country.

~~~
fexl
I was using "epic" with a Jeff Spicoli accent, not in the classical sense. But
thanks for the comments!

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benjaminwootton
It would be good if you could categorise your source code comments somehow and
have your IDE help manage them.

By default you would browse code with important summary comments visible, but
if you're interested in any one area, you could then drill down into much more
detailed and text dense comments right within your editor to read about design
decisions and the bigger picture in plain English.

Comments could be further categorised into, say, business logic related
comments or those related to design patterns, or page flow or test cases or
internationalization or whatever, giving you more options to learn about the
code and drill into the specific area you care about.

This readily accessible living documentation would be a much better way of
learning about code bases in plain English without consulting out-of-date
technical specs.

~~~
fexl
I like what you're hinting at here. In my case, the "IDE" is vim running in a
terminal window, with another terminal window to the right where I run git,
grep, and tests. Nevertheless, even in this austere environment I could
imagine a vim plugin which would let me wrap some sort of bracketed enclosures
around piece of text, possibly nested, with the ability to expand and contract
with the press of single key. Without even searching, I'll estimate the
probability of that already existing as 85%.

Problem is, anyone viewing the code in a normal text display, e.g. on github
or plain text editor, would see all the excruciating detail, all the time. But
it's an interesting idea.

Perhaps instead of the expand/collapse, I could just use links. Vim users
should note that when you're sitting on a word, if you type "gf" it will Go to
that File (i.e. open it up right there), and you can use "o" and "i" the way
you use "Back" and "Forward" in a browser.

~~~
fexl
Sorry, I meant you can use "Ctrl-o" and "Ctrl-i" that way.

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ck2
I feel like I've seen this recently on HN

Eh, cannot find it - I guess we just talk a lot about commit messages.

[http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=commit+mess...](http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=commit+messages&sortby=points+desc)

[https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aycombinator.com+commi...](https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aycombinator.com+commit+messages&tbo=1&prmdo=1&gbv=1)

Maybe it was this one, but I swear it was more recent:

[http://andrewvos.com/2011/02/21/amount-of-profanity-in-
git-c...](http://andrewvos.com/2011/02/21/amount-of-profanity-in-git-commit-
messages-per-programming-language/)

[http://geeksta.net/geeklog/exploring-expressions-emotions-
gi...](http://geeksta.net/geeklog/exploring-expressions-emotions-github-
commit-messages/)

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onetwothreefour
This is called: "programming".

