"tools/changelog-helper.sh group-entries" grouping improvement suggestions

[pljones]

What is the current behaviour and why should it be changed?

The current sorting method means "Client:" and "Client/Server:" tagged entries can be mixed:

+- Client: Added "delete server" button to connect dialog (#3159).
+  (contributed by @pljones)
+
+- Client/Server: Display Qt versions for both build and runtime (#3231).
+  (contributed by @softins)
+
+- Client: Added "Delete Entry" button to Advanced Settings, Custom Directories (#3260).
+  (contributed by @AdamGLIN)

Ideally the grouping would keep all "Client:" entries together, all "Client/Server:" entries together (following "Client:") and all "Server:" entries together (following any "Client/Server:" entries).

Currently, each PR for Weblate gets a separate entry. Grouping should merge "Translations updated from Hosted Weblate" by "@weblate" into a single entry listing all the PR numbers

Currently, "Build:" entry sorting isn't done and grouping could be improved. For example:

+- Build: Updated bundled Qt6 to version 6.6.0 (#3182).
+  (contributed by @app/github-actions)
+
+- Build: Ensure apt version >=2.4 to prove that the system is Debian based (using apt and dpkg) and can validate the repo (#3199).
+  (contributed by @houbsta)
+
+- Build: Updated bundled Qt6 to version 6.6.1 (#3204).
+  (contributed by @app/github-actions)

It would be nice if there was a single "Build: Updated bundled Qt6" entry with "- versions 6.6.0, 6.6.1, 6.6.3" by "@app/github-actions".

Sorting and grouping all the "@app/github-actions" and "@app/dependabot" updates together like this would condense the change log significantly (reducing manual editing).

[pljones]

@softins is this something you could look at?

[softins]

All this processing is currently done using bash shell and sed, primarily. Some of the suggestions are fairly easy to do, others are rather complex without completely rewriting the processing in something like Perl (in which I am competent) or Python (in which I'm a relative novice).

The current sorting method means "Client:" and "Client/Server:" tagged entries can be mixed:

+- Client: Added "delete server" button to connect dialog (#3159).
+  (contributed by @pljones)
+
+- Client/Server: Display Qt versions for both build and runtime (#3231).
+  (contributed by @softins)
+
+- Client: Added "Delete Entry" button to Advanced Settings, Custom Directories (#3260).
+  (contributed by @AdamGLIN)

Ideally the grouping would keep all "Client:" entries together, all "Client/Server:" entries together (following "Client:") and all "Server:" entries together (following any "Client/Server:" entries).

This I have done quite easily by adding a suitable entry to the list of categories.

Currently, each PR for Weblate gets a separate entry. Grouping should merge "Translations updated from Hosted Weblate" by "@weblate" into a single entry listing all the PR numbers

I have added another entry to the categories, to collect all these entries together, but they are still individual. Merging them is too complex to do with bash and sed.

Currently, "Build:" entry sorting isn't done and grouping could be improved. For example:

+- Build: Updated bundled Qt6 to version 6.6.0 (#3182).
+  (contributed by @app/github-actions)
+
+- Build: Ensure apt version >=2.4 to prove that the system is Debian based (using apt and dpkg) and can validate the repo (#3199).
+  (contributed by @houbsta)
+
+- Build: Updated bundled Qt6 to version 6.6.1 (#3204).
+  (contributed by @app/github-actions)

It would be nice if there was a single "Build: Updated bundled Qt6" entry with "- versions 6.6.0, 6.6.1, 6.6.3" by "@app/github-actions".

Again, I've added category to collect these together, but merging them is a lot more complex without a rewrite. Currently there is only one such entry since 3.11.0.

Sorting and grouping all the "@app/github-actions" and "@app/dependabot" updates together like this would condense the change log significantly (reducing manual editing).

Sorting is currently done by initial string after the leading -. Sorting by contributor would again need a rewrite.

[pljones]

The grouping will make manual post-processing much easier, anyway!