Feedback-ID: if26b431b:Fastmail
From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
To: "Kristoffer Haugsbakk" <kristofferhaugsbakk@fastmail.com>
Cc: "Taylor Blau" <me@ttaylorr.com>,  git@vger.kernel.org,  "Elijah Newren"
 <newren@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/2] SubmittingPatches: extend release-notes experiment
 to topic names
In-Reply-To: <85dbe67e-f252-4548-910d-4af29939806a@app.fastmail.com>
	(Kristoffer Haugsbakk's message of "Wed, 08 Oct 2025 18:14:42 +0200")
References: <cover.1759873165.git.me@ttaylorr.com>
	<d7931dcc4380757cfd4c6f24b5d746da2294f40b.1759873165.git.me@ttaylorr.com>
	<85dbe67e-f252-4548-910d-4af29939806a@app.fastmail.com>
Date: Wed, 08 Oct 2025 13:51:24 -0700
Message-ID: <xmqq8qhlf777.fsf@gitster.g>
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"Kristoffer Haugsbakk" <kristofferhaugsbakk@fastmail.com> writes:

> I like the format in the cover letter:
>
>      * tb/submitting-patches
>
>        Extend the experimental protocol used by contributors to propose a
>        topic branch name in addition to a description, and describe how to
>        name multi-series efforts.

Hmph, but the paragraphs that eventually go into RelNotes are not
commit log messages.  "Extend the protocol A to achieve X" is what
we would write in our proposed log messages, but after such a patch
achieves X by extending the protocol A, we'd report it in our
release notes by saying something ike "The protocol A was extended
in such and such way to achieve X".

> But it was noted[1] that the-topic-summary doesn’t seem to have been
> used much. That’s not surprising given that the instruction makes
> the-topic-summary blend in with the rest of the cover letter and doesn’t
> signal that the author intends for the first paragraph to be used as
> such. This patch shares the same problem.

Oh, that's a new theory.  So you are saying that authors may have
tried but I (and others) failed to notice?  It cetainly is possible.