Re: [PATCH 1/8] ls-files: add --json to dump the index

From: Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de>
To: Derrick Stolee <stolee@gmail.com>
Cc: "Nguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy" <pclouds@gmail.com>, git@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/8] ls-files: add --json to dump the index
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2019 15:04:16 +0200 (CEST)	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <nycvar.QRO.7.76.6.1906211501350.44@tvgsbejvaqbjf.bet> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <e3b8d7bf-486d-d52f-9a33-6a7ff837552e@gmail.com>

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Hi,

On Wed, 19 Jun 2019, Derrick Stolee wrote:

> On 6/19/2019 5:58 AM, Nguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy wrote:
>
> > +--json::
> > +	Dump the entire index content in JSON format. This is for
> > +	debugging purposes and the JSON structure may change from time
> > +	to time.
> > +
>
> "...purposes and the JSON structure may change from time to time" may be
> better as "...purposes. The JSON structure is subject to change."

It would probably make even more sense to mark this as an experimental
feature for now (i.e. prefix the description with "(EXPERIMENTAL) ", so
that users will have a harder time to miss that vague statement at the
end.

Once the feature stabilized enough, it would probably make sense to start
versioning the JSON format (`--json[=<version>]`, defaulting to the
latest).

That would make this a pretty useful feature not only for debugging, I
would imagine, but really would set a precedent for a better "API" for
3rd-party applications to use than the current one.

Thanks,
Dscho