Re: Setting the value of `emacs-bzr-version' also from a git checkout

[Óscar Fuentes]

Dani Moncayo <address@hidden> writes:

>> Why is the *user* interested on getting the revno? For bug reporting,
>> the revid is perfectly valid (and, as stated before, it is more precise
>> than the revno.)
>
> (I think I didn't answer to your question in my previous reply.  Sorry.)
>
> Many people prefer to use revnos while reporting bugs or discussing
> changes (this mailing list is the clearest example).
>
> I was even asked to include that revnos in the binaries I publish, see:
>
>   http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-gnu-emacs/2013-10/msg00002.html
>
> So, even though the bzr revision IDs are unambiguous, (most) humans
> prefer to use the revision numbers.

That's because they don't understand the implications. The usefulness of
including version info on bug reports (something that IIRC is done
automatically, so there is no need to show the info on screenshots, etc)
is to pinpoint the sources used for the build. It is self-defeating to
use ambiguous info just because it seems more human-friendly, when the
non-ambiguous info makes no difference on terms of report write effort
nor on report read effort (it is easy to write a command that reads the
revid at point and shows the corresponding commit message and/or diff.)

Speaking of user's behavior, if I still were using bzr for my personal
branch of Emacs any bug report would include a revno that is wrong from
the POV of the developers, but they would not notice. Ditto for my
personal git branch (if your modification is accepted.) And, of course,
it is true for anyone using some of the experimental branches that share
the version number with a "major" branch (i.e. 24.3.50.1)