Clarify commit suggestions

[egrace479]

The Formatting and Naming Conventions section could use a re-visit. I think we need to elevate the commit portion, but also make it more in-line with practice. We should summarize the purpose of commit messages, highlighting important aspects of readability and understanding processes done. Then also link to good practices for, e.g., machine-readability and such, but the ultimate goal of understandable commits (why is this change happening) needs to be expressed clearly.

[egrace479]

Providing informative commits seems to be a consistent issue or challenge. We'd like to try to make this easier. One thought would be to promote/suggest AI options that can help (e.g., aicommit2). Though Copilot suggestions still have a tendency to include Update <filename>, they also give some more information about the changes, so it doesn't seem unreasonable to offer an AI solution along with improved explanation and motivation.

Currently, our commit section is essentially a pointer to Conventional Commits.

@gwtaylor, wondering if you have any recommendations or suggestions on this front?

[gwtaylor]

I agree that we should go a little further than simply pointing to Conventional Commits.
Conventional Commits really focus on how to write the message, but I think our advice should include 1. The commit itself (i.e. what makes a good commit); and 2. How to write a good commit message.

I am a fan of aicommit2, and up for a list of AI options and such that help with messages, but again, this only addresses #2.

I would structure it as such:

1-2 sentence summary on how to structure commits (I would say, most importantly, making them atomic).

Pointer to a good blog post for more info Like this one from GitHub

1-2 sentence summary on how to write a good commit message (I would say, most importantly, summary line that is informative and follows some convention, plus additional detail on lines below where AI can often help)

Pointer to Conventional Commits.
Pointer to our favourite AI tools: aicommit2, VS Code, Zed, Copilot on GitHub.com.

[egrace479]

@gwtaylor, this sounds like a great plan to update the section, and that GitHub blog post is excellent!