Re: [RFC] Indicate that Git waits for user input via editor

[Lars Schneider <larsxschneider@gmail.com>]

> On 15 Nov 2017, at 18:51, Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com> wrote:
> 
> On Wed, Nov 15, 2017 at 7:08 AM, Lars Schneider
> <larsxschneider@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> Git gathers user input via text editor in certain commands (e.g. "git commit").
>> If you configure a text based editor, such as vi, then this works great as the
>> editor is opened in your terminal window in the foreground and in focus.
>> 
>> However, if you configure an editor that runs outside your terminal window then
>> you might run into the following problem:
>> Git opens the editor but the editor is the background or on another screen and
>> consequently you don't see the editor. You only see the Git command line
>> interface which appears to hang.
>> 
>> I wonder if would make sense to print "Opening editor for user input..." or
>> something to the screen to make the user aware of the action. Does this sound
>> sensible to you? Am I missing an existing solution to this problem?
> 
> Can this be put in a wrapper that opens the text editor?
> The wrapper would print these lines and then open the text editor;
> depending on the operating system, there might even be a command to
> focus on that editor window.

Yeah, that would be a workaround. However, in order to take these steps (write the 
wrapper, enable the focus command) the users needs to understand the problem.
That's quite a leap especially for new Git users. They just get the feeling "Git 
is broken because it hangs".

Can you imagine any downside for an "Opening editor for user input..." message?


> Regarding Git, maybe improve the documentation for how to set the editor
> variable?

The sad truth is that 98% of the users do not read the documentation
(made up number but close to my observed reality).


- Lars