[openstack-dev] [hacking] rules for removal

Clint Byrum clint at fewbar.com
Tue Jun 24 16:51:43 UTC 2014


Excerpts from Monty Taylor's message of 2014-06-24 06:48:06 -0700:
> On 06/22/2014 02:49 PM, Duncan Thomas wrote:
> > On 22 June 2014 14:41, Amrith Kumar <amrith at tesora.com> wrote:
> >> In addition to making changes to the hacking rules, why don't we mandate also
> >> that perceived problems in the commit message shall not be an acceptable
> >> reason to -1 a change.
> > 
> > -1.
> > 
> > There are some /really/ bad commit messages out there, and some of us
> > try to use the commit messages to usefully sort through the changes
> > (i.e. I often -1 in cinder a change only affects one driver and that
> > isn't clear from the summary).
> > 
> > If the perceived problem is grammatical, I'm a bit more on board with
> > it not a reason to rev a patch, but core reviewers can +2/A over the
> > top of a -1 anyway...
> 
> 100% agree. Spelling and grammar are rude to review on - especially
> since we have (and want) a LOT of non-native English speakers. It's not
> our job to teach people better grammar. Heck - we have people from
> different English backgrounds with differing disagreements on what good
> grammar _IS_
> 

We shouldn't quibble over _anything_ grammatical in a commit message. If
there is a disagreement about it, the comments should be ignored. There
are definitely a few grammar rules that are loose and those should be
largely ignored.

However, we should correct grammar when there is a clear solution, as
those same people who do not speak English as their first language are
likely to be confused by poor grammar.

We're not doing it to teach grammar. We're doing it to ensure readability.



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