[PATCH] Fixlets and minor improvements for HACKING. (was: Document current policy for development with git.)

[Stefano Lattarini]

At Thursday 29 July 2010, Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> 
> > > +* There may be a number of longer-lived feature branches for
> > > new developments. +  They should be based off of a common
> > > ancestor of all active branches to +  which the feature should
> > > be merged later.  The next branch may serve as +  common
> > > ground for feature merging and testing, should they not be
> > > ready +  for master yet.
> > 
> > Shouldn't we mention the "next" branch before, together with
> > master and maint and branch-X.Y? That would make things clearer
> > IMHO.  For the rest, good and clear.
> 
> Yeah, maybe.
Hmmm... while trying to "fix" HACKING to insert an early mentioning
of the "next" branch, I realized that the current formulation is, in 
fact, clearer and bettere organized.  So let's keep it unchanged.

However, in the meantime, I've done some other unrelated small fixes 
and additions to HACKING.  They are in the attached patch; it's up to 
you to decide if they are worthwhile.  Note that I deliberately didn't 
add a ChangeLog entry, because this is *required* by the HACKING file 
itself.

Regards,
    Stefano

From 45e9fe1e959d5c4efc5cacdb8c3f6597f8ccfcab Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Stefano Lattarini <address@hidden>
Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2010 11:47:55 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Fixlets and minor improvements for HACKING.

* HACKING: Add some missing fullstops in sentences.  Remove
some extra empty lines, for consistency.
(Test suite): Add pointer to `tests/README'.
(Admistrivia): Tell to mention important bug fixes in NEWS.
---
 HACKING |   15 +++++++--------
 1 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/HACKING b/HACKING
index ad0ae49..38af22e 100644
--- a/HACKING
+++ b/HACKING
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@
 * Don't put this file into the distribution.  Don't mention it in the
   ChangeLog.
 
-
 ================================================================
 = Administrivia
 
@@ -33,8 +32,8 @@
       texinfo.tex (address@hidden),
   Most of them are updated before release with `make fetch'.
 
-* Changes other than bug fixes must be mentioned in NEWS
-
+* Changes other than bug fixes must be mentioned in NEWS.  Important
+  bug fixes should be mentioned in NES, too.
 
 ================================================================
 = Naming
@@ -60,7 +59,7 @@
 * Use `##' comments liberally.  Comment anything even remotely
   unusual.
 
-* Never use basename or dirname.  Instead use sed
+* Never use basename or dirname.  Instead use sed.
 
 * Do not use `cd' within back-quotes, use `$(am__cd)' instead.
   Otherwise the directory name may be printed, depending on CDPATH.
@@ -73,7 +72,6 @@
   "important" command it runs.  The printed commands should be preceded
   by a single space.
 
-
 ================================================================
 = Editing automake.in and aclocal.in
 
@@ -90,7 +88,6 @@
 
 * Perl 5 is now OK.
 
-
 ================================================================
 = Working with git
 
@@ -164,9 +161,9 @@
 ================================================================
 = Test suite
 
-* Use "make check" and "make maintainer-check" liberally
+* Use "make check" and "make maintainer-check" liberally.
 
-* Make sure each test file is executable
+* Make sure each test file is executable.
 
 * Use `keep_testdirs=yes' to keep test directories for successful
   tests also.
@@ -174,6 +171,8 @@
 * Use perl coverage information to ensure your new code is thoroughly
   tested by your new tests.
 
+* See file `tests/README' for more information.
+
 ================================================================
 = Release procedure
 
-- 
1.7.1