From: Mark Levedahl <mlevedahl@gmail.com>
To: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>
Cc: Johannes Sixt via GitGitGadget <gitgitgadget@gmail.com>,
git@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 5/5] gitk: avoid constructing dialog titles from text pieces
Date: Sat, 8 Aug 2026 10:55:52 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <433a3e74-c66e-40a3-9971-c8cb9692967d@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <b1d397e1-ab2d-439e-ba45-0ade2c216afa@kdbg.org>
On 8/8/26 6:00 AM, Johannes Sixt wrote:
> Am 07.08.26 um 16:37 schrieb mark:
>> This with the prior patch should help translation due to use of more common idioms and
>> complete phrases rather than jargon. Good.
> "Complete phrases" and "jargon" are words I need for the commit
> messages! Thank you :-)
>
> Now, with a fresh eye, I see that we have text like this:
>
> Diff: old lines background
>
> This looks more like an assemblement of words and jargon than a phrase
> in natural language. Any suggestions for improvement? How about
>
> Background of old lines in diffs
>
> Sounds a bit clumsy.
>
> (In this case I prefer to say "diffs" rather than e.g. "patch text",
> because we are looking at differences between versions, "diffs", and not
> patches. Also, we already have "diff" in multiple other places in the UI.)
>
> -- Hannes
>
I'm ok with using "Diff" as a common identifier for this here. gitk is parsing commit
diffs from git, showing each hunk separately. I'd also rather not use patch. The UI
already shows "new version" and "old version", so using new lines and old lines is consistent.
But, one thing missing, hinted at by your suggestion "Background of ..." is that the clear
definition of what is being affected is poorly expressed. A complete description of each
item would require a paragraph, probably with an example image. Trying to compress into a
few words will always exploit context and presume some common language we expect a
git/gitk user to understand or be able to learn in context.
Maybe some extra words and categorization would help. Consider using a longer category
description to provide common information, for instance:
-General Canvas Area
Background
Marked Lines Background
Main Text
Selected Text
Link Text
-Commit Differences
old line text
new line text
-old line background
etc.
etc, where the lines beginning with "-" are just separators and do not have an associated
color selection button.
Mark
Mark
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-08-08 14:55 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 16+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-08-06 6:40 [PATCH 0/5] gitk: make color preferences visually more pleasing and better usable Johannes Sixt via GitGitGadget
2026-08-06 6:40 ` [PATCH 1/5] gitk: set intitial colors of swatches using the available helper Johannes Sixt via GitGitGadget
2026-08-07 14:36 ` mark
2026-08-06 6:40 ` [PATCH 2/5] gitk: condense repetitive code around color buttons into foreach loops Johannes Sixt via GitGitGadget
2026-08-07 14:37 ` mark
2026-08-06 6:40 ` [PATCH 3/5] gitk: show color preferences on the button instead of the label Johannes Sixt via GitGitGadget
2026-08-07 14:37 ` mark
2026-08-08 9:33 ` Johannes Sixt
2026-08-06 6:40 ` [PATCH 4/5] gitk: use more natural language for labels of color preferences Johannes Sixt via GitGitGadget
2026-08-06 6:40 ` [PATCH 5/5] gitk: avoid constructing dialog titles from text pieces Johannes Sixt via GitGitGadget
2026-08-07 14:37 ` mark
2026-08-08 10:00 ` Johannes Sixt
2026-08-08 14:55 ` Mark Levedahl [this message]
2026-08-09 7:27 ` Johannes Sixt
2026-08-08 16:32 ` Junio C Hamano
2026-08-09 7:04 ` Johannes Sixt
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