From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Pete Harlan Subject: Re: Consistent terminology: cached/staged/index Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2011 19:09:20 -0800 Message-ID: <4D589CE0.7020203@pcharlan.com> References: <20110213193738.GA26868@elie> <7v8vxjwnhj.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Jonathan Nieder , Piotr Krukowiecki , git@vger.kernel.org To: Junio C Hamano X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Mon Feb 14 04:10:01 2011 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.180.67]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Poop5-0003NY-FV for gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org; Mon, 14 Feb 2011 04:09:59 +0100 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751917Ab1BNDJy (ORCPT ); Sun, 13 Feb 2011 22:09:54 -0500 Received: from hapkido.dreamhost.com ([66.33.216.122]:37300 "EHLO hapkido.dreamhost.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1754202Ab1BNDJx (ORCPT ); Sun, 13 Feb 2011 22:09:53 -0500 Received: from homiemail-a79.g.dreamhost.com (caibbdcaaaaf.dreamhost.com [208.113.200.5]) by hapkido.dreamhost.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3839117AC0A for ; Sun, 13 Feb 2011 19:09:53 -0800 (PST) Received: from homiemail-a79.g.dreamhost.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by homiemail-a79.g.dreamhost.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8EAC87D4058; Sun, 13 Feb 2011 19:09:20 -0800 (PST) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=pcharlan.com; h=message-id:date :from:mime-version:to:cc:subject:references:in-reply-to :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; q=dns; s=pcharlan.com; b=aZX6fd711/VwdkwfPa/ZK4zz97+kdHgat6z0yZ39y9tV4lahGTHpShd8iqvDQ esRPzxySbZLds6q4QA529qmQK9JTqN099XcqpEvF89d97J/RSTQ6mUQTMJjPim6v nHdM9HU5KDJfoeeIpKzTtYQme4F/+O8TKNRDVbxZCyqWKM= DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed; d=pcharlan.com; h=message-id :date:from:mime-version:to:cc:subject:references:in-reply-to :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; s=pcharlan.com; bh=9wXf 2X4I0tnGdPwTQMY0FwCbVCA=; b=mFoKkE0N3myM7rRYT+KTl7L/YZ5wDI78g/Cj 0eZL3uD9R5Deg3RYQqPr222/zSzMWFWo0/P4FMDnmK215ETEPpMcVgdiKGp8jStw I3UkJvMPKslMTcLLXFAYEbotTgkH3sc5PsR05c1eQr4xF8x9YvH2dhq6lWfAmxpg 4rDD8j4= Received: from [192.168.0.101] (185.132-78-65.ftth.swbr.surewest.net [65.78.132.185]) (Authenticated sender: pete@tento.net) by homiemail-a79.g.dreamhost.com (Postfix) with ESMTPA id 65B9C7D4057; Sun, 13 Feb 2011 19:09:20 -0800 (PST) User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20101208 Thunderbird/3.1.7 In-Reply-To: <7v8vxjwnhj.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org> Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: On 02/13/2011 02:58 PM, Junio C Hamano wrote: >> --staged >> ~~~~~~~~ >> diff takes --staged, but that is only to support some people's habits. > The term "stage" comes from "staging area", a term people used to explain > the concept of the index by saying "The index holds set of contents to be > made into the next commit; it is _like_ the staging area". > > My feeling is that "to stage" is primarily used, outside "git" circle, as > a logistics term. If you find it easier to visualize the concept of the > index with "staging area" ("an area where troops and equipment in transit > are assembled before a military operation", you may find it easier to say > "stage this path ('git add path')", instead of "adding to the set of > contents...". FWIW, when teaching Git I have found that users immediately understand "staging area", while "index" and "cache" confuse them. "Index" means to them a numerical index into a data structure. "Cache" is a local copy of something that exists remotely. Neither word describes the concept correctly from a user's perspective. I learned long ago to type "index" and "cached", but when talking (and thinking) about Git I find "the staging area" gets the point across very clearly and moves Git from interesting techie-tool to world-dominating SCM territory. I'm surprised that that experience isn't universal. --Pete