From: Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org>
To: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Cc: Michael J Gruber <git@drmicha.warpmail.net>,
Johannes Sixt <j.sixt@viscovery.net>,
Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>,
Piotr Krukowiecki <piotr.krukowiecki.news@gmail.com>,
git@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Consistent terminology: cached/staged/index
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2011 08:47:00 +0900 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <AANLkTikyc5QEou8Em-3HkLSHWHQyx+MnYMQ9OSN33_QS@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <7vzkpyql2r.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 7:59 AM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
> I actually was hoping that it was obvious that -s is a no-starter from the
> messages so far in this thread, as neither --cached nor its more
> descriptive spelling --index-only has character 's' anywhere in it, and we
> have been keeping --staged as a low-key synonym for a reason.
It was not at all obvious. Even if you like --cached more than
--staged, there's a difference between advocating "--staged", and
using "-s" as a short-option for the operation which --cached /
--staged invoke.
Short option names are often a compromise, because clearly there are
often conflicts. That _doesn't_ mean that one should simply not have
a short option, when a "perfect" choice cannot be found. If a
"perfect" short-option isn't available, then usually one turns to
somewhat less perfect choices, trying to at least find some heuristic
that can make them easier to memorize -- because in the end, short
options must be memorized (and if they are truly common operations,
this isn't generally difficult; it's memorizing _rarely_ used short
options that's hard).
Of the various choices, "-s" does at least have such a heuristic
connection to an appropriate long option ("-i" is arguably worse than
-s, because it doesn't have any such connection...). Can you suggest
something better?
[BTW, isn't the name "--index-only" something of a misnomer? If
something is called "--XXX-only", that implies that the default
operation uses "XXX + something else" instead of XXX, but that
otherwise they are the same. However in fact the difference in
behavior resulting from --cached is more subtle: it changes _both_
sides of the diff (default: worktree<->index; --cached: index<->HEAD).
The names --cached and --staged actually capture this well -- they
basically say "the default is worktree changes, and --cached/--staged
diffs cached/staged changes instead" -- but the name "--index-only"
does not.]
-Miles
--
Cat is power. Cat is peace.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2011-02-14 23:47 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 65+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2011-02-13 19:20 Consistent terminology: cached/staged/index Piotr Krukowiecki
2011-02-13 19:37 ` Jonathan Nieder
2011-02-13 22:58 ` Junio C Hamano
2011-02-14 2:05 ` Miles Bader
2011-02-14 5:57 ` Junio C Hamano
2011-02-14 6:27 ` Miles Bader
2011-02-14 6:59 ` Johannes Sixt
2011-02-14 7:07 ` Miles Bader
2011-02-14 10:42 ` Michael J Gruber
2011-02-14 11:04 ` Miles Bader
2011-02-14 17:12 ` Junio C Hamano
2011-02-14 22:07 ` Miles Bader
2011-02-14 22:59 ` Junio C Hamano
2011-02-14 23:47 ` Miles Bader [this message]
2011-02-15 0:12 ` Junio C Hamano
2011-02-14 13:14 ` Nguyen Thai Ngoc Duy
2011-02-14 13:43 ` Michael J Gruber
2011-02-14 13:57 ` Nguyen Thai Ngoc Duy
2011-02-14 14:17 ` Felipe Contreras
2011-02-14 14:21 ` Nguyen Thai Ngoc Duy
2011-02-14 14:40 ` Jakub Narebski
2011-02-14 15:24 ` Michael J Gruber
2011-02-14 16:00 ` Felipe Contreras
2011-02-14 16:04 ` Michael J Gruber
2011-02-14 16:27 ` Felipe Contreras
2011-02-14 3:09 ` Pete Harlan
2011-02-16 23:11 ` Drew Northup
2011-02-26 20:36 ` Felipe Contreras
2011-02-27 15:30 ` Drew Northup
2011-02-27 21:16 ` Aghiles
2011-02-28 20:53 ` Drew Northup
2011-02-14 22:32 ` Piotr Krukowiecki
2011-02-14 23:19 ` Jonathan Nieder
2011-02-15 8:29 ` Pete Harlan
2011-02-15 9:00 ` Jonathan Nieder
2011-02-15 18:15 ` Piotr Krukowiecki
2011-02-15 18:38 ` Jonathan Nieder
2011-02-26 21:09 ` Felipe Contreras
2011-02-26 21:51 ` Jonathan Nieder
2011-02-27 0:01 ` Miles Bader
2011-02-27 0:16 ` Felipe Contreras
2011-02-27 0:46 ` Jonathan Nieder
2011-02-27 8:15 ` Junio C Hamano
2011-02-27 8:43 ` Jeff King
2011-02-27 9:21 ` Miles Bader
2011-02-27 22:28 ` Jon Seymour
2011-02-27 23:57 ` Junio C Hamano
2011-02-28 9:38 ` Michael J Gruber
2011-02-27 15:34 ` Drew Northup
2011-02-28 23:03 ` Jeff King
2011-03-01 9:11 ` David
2011-03-01 9:15 ` Matthieu Moy
2011-03-01 9:32 ` Alexei Sholik
2011-03-01 17:02 ` Drew Northup
2011-03-01 17:30 ` Alexei Sholik
2011-03-01 17:41 ` Drew Northup
2011-03-01 9:27 ` Alexey Feldgendler
2011-03-01 16:46 ` Drew Northup
2011-03-04 17:18 ` Felipe Contreras
2011-03-05 4:53 ` Miles Bader
2011-03-05 5:00 ` Jonathan Nieder
2011-03-06 12:44 ` Drew Northup
[not found] ` <878466.93199.1298934204331.JavaMail.trustmail@mail1.terreactive.ch>
2011-03-01 8:43 ` Victor Engmark
2011-02-27 18:46 ` Phil Hord
2011-03-01 10:29 ` Jonathan Nieder
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