On Wed, 1 Aug 2012, Frank Shearar wrote:

> Hi,
>
> How important is the changes file, really? I don't mean in terms of
> recovering from crashes, because I use my changes file all the time.
>
> I mean, if a changes file is not present, does everything still work?
> I ask, because SmalltalkImage >> #logChange: specifically protects
> against a missing changes file (in the sense that it does nothing if
> (Sources at: 2) == nil). However, if you start up an image with no
> changes file, there's a big fat modal dialog warning about the missing
> file, but clicking through results in what looks - at first glance at
> least - like a normally functioning image.
>
> If a changes file is _desirable_ but not _necessary_, could we remove
> the dialog (or do something different for -headless images, like
> dumping a warning to stderr)? Or simply start a new changes file if
> one's missing?
>
> The concrete problem I'm trying to work around is with the CI test
> script. Running the test means modifying the changes file and Jenkins
> really does not like that. If the changes file were not necessary I
> could simply not keep it under version control.

In some cases the changes file is not necessary, but the absence of the 
real changes file will make the system behave differently, especially 
while running the compiler tests.


Levente

>
> Sometimes, I don't _care_ about recovering from a crash.
>
> frank
>
>