Re: [PATCHv12 00/23] git notes

[Johan Herland <johan@herland.net>]

On Thursday 28 January 2010, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> The earlier frustration of mine was about adding a note, not adding _to_
>  a note.  The semantic difference I described with add/edit was "adding
>  anew" vs "modify".
> 
> Once I realize that Dscho's original "edit" lacks an explicit "adding
> anew" and it simply means "replace if exists otherwise add", then I can
> agree the argument that "adding anew" mode is not necessary.
> 
> The semantic difference your add/edit try to capture works at a different
> level.  They are "append to it" vs "replace it".  Current "edit -m 'foo'"
> that replaces feels to me quite counterintuitive.
> 
> If two modes are useful, then I would suggest to deprecate the use of
> "edit" subcommand with -m/-F (because its name doesn't tell the user
>  which one between "append" and "replace" it happens to implement) and
>  instead introduce two more explicit subcommands, "append" and "replace".
>   For the same reason, "add" would cause confusion between "is this to
>  add a new note" vs "is this to add _to_ a new note", and I'd recommend
>  against it.
> 
> "edit" could still open an editor to "modify" existing one (and if there
> is no existing one, then the editor starts empty).
> 
> On the other hand, if "replace" is not very useful, then it might be
> enough to just introduce a new "append" subcommand.  Or course, we could
> redefine the useless "replace" semantics from "edit -m/-F" and change it
> to always append.

Ok, I see your point, and I largely agree with your analysis. I'll attempt 
to summarize what we want from "git notes" in this regard:

- git notes add: Add a new note. Open editor for giving the note contents.
  Barf if a note already exists for the given object.

	Options:
	-m <msg>, --message <msg>: Specify note contents on command-line instead
		of opening editor. (Multiple -m options are concatenated.)

	-F <file>, --file <file>: Get note contents from the given file instead
		of opening editor.

	-f, --force: Instead of barfing, replace/overwrite existing notes.

- git notes append: Append to an existing note; create new note if needed.
  Open editor for giving the (additional) note contents.

	Options:
	-m <msg>, --message <msg>: (Same as above)
	-F <file>, --file <file>: (Same as above)

- git notes edit: Edit an existing note. Create new note if needed (?)
  Open editor for editing the existing note contents.

	No options (deprecate existing -m and -F options)

Is this what you had in mind? AFAICS it should cover all interesting use 
cases.


...Johan

-- 
Johan Herland, <johan@herland.net>
www.herland.net