Re: Structured Changelogs for ELPA packages

 
Richard Stallman <[email protected]> writes:

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> [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
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>
>   > - The strict approach would be to say that if we want packages to have
>   >   fine-granular news, that they have to use a specific file format, say
>   >   Org-mode and that the sections describing specific releases have to be
>   >   annotated with tags or properties.

> Org mode isn't an Emacs standard for files which contain items.
> It is a feature which people can use if they like, but general facilities
> should not require people use Org mode.

This is not about Emacs, but ELPA.  If we were to decide to allow the
changelog to contain more metadata, then Org mode would be an
appropriate tool to solve the problem.

>     2. Search for headlines matching a specific pattern. I found these
>        patterns:
>
>        - Keep a Changelog: [1.2.3] - 2026-07-30
>        - Common Changelog: 1.2.3 - 2026-07-30
>        - Towncrier:        1.2.3 (2026-07-30)
>        - Magit style:      v1.2.3 2026-07-30
>
> Could you explain what that list means?
>
> I can understand the second part of each line, as an example of
> formating of a version number and a date.  We could easily simply
> adopt one and say package maintainers should all use it.  And I think
> we could easily write a converter to that one.
>
> But the first part of each line seems to refer to things
> I have never heard of.  What does "Towncrier" mean?
> What does "Common Changelog" mean?

These are names for different changelog styles.