Re: [PATCH 7/7] xdiff: make diff3 the default conflictStyle

From: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>
To: Sergey Organov <sorganov@gmail.com>, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Cc: "Jeff King" <peff@peff.net>,
	"Felipe Contreras" <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>,
	"David Aguilar" <davvid@gmail.com>,
	"Bagas Sanjaya" <bagasdotme@gmail.com>,
	"Elijah Newren" <newren@gmail.com>,
	"Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason" <avarab@gmail.com>,
	"Denton Liu" <liu.denton@gmail.com>,
	git@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 7/7] xdiff: make diff3 the default conflictStyle
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2021 18:41:09 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <dd5a1b6c-f0d3-f135-d03d-5d1f9205503d@kdbg.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <875yykipq2.fsf@osv.gnss.ru>

Am 11.06.21 um 13:51 schrieb Sergey Organov:
> I don't get it. Once you have diff3 output, and you want something
> simpler, you just kill the inner section, right? RCS merge output style
> is simply inferior.

There is an important case where RCS style is not inferior: When the base is

 123456

then our side makes it

 12ABC56

and their side makes it

 12AXC56

then diff3 must display the conflict as

 12<ABC|34=AXC>56

to be technically correct. RCS style can coalesce A and C outside of the
conflict and display it as

 12A<B=X>C34

and *that* is the helpful part of this simpler style. You encounter
these kinds of conflicts *a lot* when you juggle fixups in a rebase
--interactive session.

The thread mentioned earlier upthread explores whether diff3 can do a
similar simplification.

-- Hannes