Making error messages stand out (Re: [RFC/PATCH 0/9] commit: more focused advice in the no-changes-staged case)

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Thomas Rast wrote:

>   git://repo.or.cz/git/trast.git t/color-porcelain-message-output

My first thought was "that’s a horrible idea; red text is so hard to
read".  My second thought: "oh, maybe it’s not so bad because it’s
bold".  Now I am starting to worry about the sort of distraction that
can sometimes follow from too much formatting (e.g., with certain
syntax highlighting engines).

A little bold text here and there (maybe to highlight the heading
strings like "fatal" and "hint") would be very useful, certainly.  To
deal with messages like

  Recorded resolution for 'dir/a'.
  [detached HEAD aa9ae6b] related change                          (1)
   1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
  Automatic cherry-pick failed.  After resolving the conflicts,
  mark the corrected paths with 'git add <paths>', and
  run 'git rebase --continue'
  Recorded preimage for 'dir/a'
  Could not apply 649420f... second                               (2)
 
though, I find the best solution is to use short, formulaic messages:

  ...
  Recorded resolution for 'dir/a'.
  [detached HEAD aa9ae6b] related change
   1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
  fatal: could not apply 649420f... second
  hint: after resolving the conflicts, mark the corrected paths
  hint: with 'git add <paths>' and run 'git rebase --continue'

I do realize this is not a very useful thing to say without attaching
a patch. ;-)