I would like to able to specify an arbitrary number of "sections" for my commit messages, and have a text box appear for each section. When the commit actually happens to the VCS, the text from each of the text boxes is concatenated, but bounded by xml tags that name the section. If not xml tags, then maybe the name of the section bracket by [ and ].

Here is the use case i have in mind.

I am checking in some code. Some of the changes i have made change the api of the code. so i want to communicate that change to the rest of the developers. So I type the following text into the "developers" text box:

"It is now possible to locate resources on the classpath by prefixing the resource name with the string classpath:"

The changes I have made also affect the user experience, so the documentation writers and business analysts need to know about that. So I type the following text into the "user experience" box:

"Failed login attempts are now counted, and three failed attempts in a row cause the account to be locked".

The changes i have made also affect the way the app needs to be deployed, so I write the following text into the "deployment" text area:

"The app needs a cert in jks format available on the classpath in a file names cert.jks".

When the commit happens, the commit message text is:

[developers]It is now possible to locate resources on the classpath by prefixing the resource name with the string classpath:[/developers]
[user experience]Failed login attempts are now counted, and three failed attempts in a row cause the account to be locked[/user experience]
[deployment]The app needs a cert in jks format available on the classpath in a file names cert.jks[/deployment]

Now I can write scripts to trawl the commit messages between two revisions and compile notes for the developers, doc writers/business analysts and system admin people.

This is just one possible use of a means to section commit messages of course