This is just an example, but there really needs to be a way to make sure they post a proper changelog... Like, is there a limitation on characters? Can't we set up a way to import the release notes from Github? Why is it this way?
Meanwhile it's not like the big commercial companies like Facebook or even Google do it right... ๐ !
Yeah it's mind-boggling that not even Google is providing helpful changelogs for their Android apps in their own app store.
Yeah, worse even, they started this unhelpful what's new message rage as far as I know. First time I saw it, I laughed, thought it was ironic coming from Google in their own store, but since then many others started doing it to so it can be fully automated in the most simplistic way possible abd not gaving to mention updates that are actually in your disadvantage... It is becoming a problem. Even Discord (who used to make hilariously funny What's New's) just tells you to check the new stuff in the app after updating it now... Kinda defeats the whole point, tbh.
It drives me crazy that these guys are the topdogs in anything at all.
I would say it is this way because it takes a big effort to crunch all the patches that have been made thus far and make an easy-to-read summary out of them.
It's not something that comes for free. You need someone on the job.
concise Commit Messages are the solutions. :)
Even if the commit message is concise, there is a difference between what the patch does on a technical level and what the end user will see as a result.
IMO the solution is to link each commit to an issue or a ticket - some high-level description of the feature the commit implements - but there still has to be someone who makes the effort of making sure each commit is linked to a ticket and who nags the devs when they forget to do so..
Understandable... but what about the bigger companies?
Those are profit driven. If they can cut cost they will. They just want the minimal effort to get customers. Also usually their app has such marketing and notoriety that most people don't really care about changelogs.
I have been very disappointed that Fedora stopped making changelogs accessible for years. It used to be that you could easily toggle them on in Yum, but with DNF it's always "no info found".
I did not know this happened... yikes.
My commits comments end up like this most of the time
Rentlar committed: Fixed a, b, c, changed file x, added y improvement, deleted unnecessary z
-- 15 minutes later -- Rentlar committed: Shit I broke something, fixed.
-- 10 minutes later -- Rentlar committed: fix the damn formatting complaints
And that's awesome. I'd much rather see this, than whatever fuckall "We squashed some bugs" message that is repeated every single time.
I understand that the average user isn't interested in that, but the average user isn't reading the changelog either!
I've read about someone's experience once that less detailed release note releases are more likely to be approved by store moderation without issue.
It's probably more laziness / not seeing enough value in it though.
I see lacking release notes everywhere - in many projects.
Sucks when you're trying to asses necessity, risks, and changes of updates of apps, service infrastructure, or libraries.
Good release notes are not hard if you have a good workflow. At my work project it's basically automated generated - thanks to a deliberate and conventional commit workflow.
But few people see the need, the value, or have the initiative and thoroughness that would establish it.
I install straight from GitHub. You can see exactly what has been updated.
Same. I installed the app on my phone to ensure I don't have to mess around in the browser all the time.
I've been on Linux for over a decade. Two years ago, I installed Okular (pdf reader) on my friend's laptop. I was surprised to see it was a rather old Okular version. So the trouble goes further down. Maybe is just a lack of volunteers/ maintainers. Well, given Windows is paid, this would be just plain understaffing.
It's worth mentioning that my current app store on Linux is flathub.org/setup (it's distro agnostic). I highly recommend you explore WSL and Flatpak (flatpak is the underlying 'packaging' tech behind flathub). Here's some good news from 2018, https://www.phoronix.com/news/Flatpak-Windows-Prototype
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