From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Thomas Rast Subject: Re: [BUG] Highly inconsistent diff UI Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:32:03 +0200 Message-ID: <87li87awwc.fsf@linux-k42r.v.cablecom.net> References: <7va9ong9oa.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org> <7v38ufer2x.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org> <877gjrpsk4.fsf@hexa.v.cablecom.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Cc: Junio C Hamano , Git List To: Ramkumar Ramachandra X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Thu Apr 25 09:32:13 2013 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git-2@plane.gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.180.67]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1UVGf6-0007f5-Us for gcvg-git-2@plane.gmane.org; Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:32:13 +0200 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1754960Ab3DYHcI (ORCPT ); Thu, 25 Apr 2013 03:32:08 -0400 Received: from edge20.ethz.ch ([82.130.99.26]:46277 "EHLO edge20.ethz.ch" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1754094Ab3DYHcG (ORCPT ); Thu, 25 Apr 2013 03:32:06 -0400 Received: from CAS21.d.ethz.ch (172.31.51.111) by edge20.ethz.ch (82.130.99.26) with Microsoft SMTP Server (TLS) id 14.2.298.4; Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:31:58 +0200 Received: from linux-k42r.v.cablecom.net.ethz.ch (129.132.153.233) by CAS21.d.ethz.ch (172.31.51.111) with Microsoft SMTP Server (TLS) id 14.2.298.4; Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:32:04 +0200 In-Reply-To: (Ramkumar Ramachandra's message of "Thu, 25 Apr 2013 02:24:17 +0530") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.2 (gnu/linux) X-Originating-IP: [129.132.153.233] Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: Ramkumar Ramachandra writes: > Thomas Rast wrote: >> I personally think we have enough magic revision syntax to last at least >> another decade. If you propose to add some, please make a patch that we >> can cook in next for a few release cycles and then conduct a straw poll >> if people actually use it. > > Isn't it obviously incredibly useful? I'm working on a topic branch I > need to send out to git.git, and I want see how my WIP looks: should I > have to rebase on master just to see this? > > Why such a huge resistance against such a small feature? Can you > think of ways in which it is myopic (and therefore a pain to keep > supporting, if we find it undesirable)? What's the problem with cooking it for a while? You can start using it immediately. I'm just somewhat annoyed that the syntax is rapidly converging to Perl-style line noise. I already hate half of the existing syntax, and I cannot remember using ^! (except while investigating what 'git diff C^!' does and why not), ^@, @{-N} (only the related 'git checkout -'), @{date} and @{relative}, ^{}, :/foo, and ^{/foo}, *at all*. In fact I had to look up the second half of that list on the manpage. That's not to say that they are not useful for *someone*. But it does motivate my suggestion that unless we have tried it and *found* that someone for a new syntax, let's not make it any more magic. > On a related note- In my opinion, :/ is broken, because it blocks > composition completely. I would've really liked {:/quuxery}~3. I guess this constitutes an argument in my favor (i.e. that the syntax is too convoluted to understand and know): ^{/foo} is the same as :/foo, except it properly groups. -- Thomas Rast trast@{inf,student}.ethz.ch