Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

"Refactor invoice parser"



Have you read the comment I'm answering to? I'll repeat the key sentence for you:

> you should usually be able to reword any "self-action" commits into system action commits

So your suggestion here is completely irrelevant, as "system" doesn't refactor anything.


That's not how I've normally seen the advice to write imperative commit messages get interpreted. Quoting Documentation/CodingStyle from the Linux kernel (whose commit messages follow that pattern):

Describe your changes in imperative mood, e.g. "make xyzzy do frotz" instead of "[This patch] makes xyzzy do frotz" or "[I] changed xyzzy to do frotz", as if you are giving orders to the codebase to change its behaviour.

Or, if you prefer not to anthropomorphize the codebase (because it hates that), you could also think of it as instructing someone to make the change (and then supplying a patch implementing that instruction).

And a quick search through the Linux kernel git log turns up 1416 messages of the form "subsystem: Refactor ...".




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: