On 15.01.2013 12:44, Jeroen De Dauw wrote:
Hey,
I have observed a difference in opinion between two groups of people on gerrit, which unfortunately is causing bad blood on both sides. I'm therefore interested in hearing your opinion about the following scenario:
Someone makes a sound commit. The commit has a clear commit message, though there is a single typo in it. Is it helpful to -1 the commit because of the typo?
Yes, I have noticed the same.
My very personal opinion:
No, a -1 is not justified because of a typo in a commit message. Doing that just causes a lot of overhead for extremely little benefit. If someone is really bothered by it, they can fix it themselves.
It's like reverting a Wikipedia edit because of a type. You don't do that. You fix it or leave it.
The only semi-valid argument I have heard in support is that commit messages (may) go into the release notes. But release notes are edited, formatted and spell-checked anyway, and they don't include all commit messages. Not even all tag lines.
Personally, if I do a quick fix of a bug I find somewhere, and the fix gets a -1 for a typo in the commit message, I'm tempted to just walk away and let it rot. I'm immature like that I guess... and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.
-- daniel
PS: note that this is about typos. A commit with an incomprehensible or plain wrong commit message should indeed get a -1.