From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Junio C Hamano Subject: Re: [PATCH/RFC] Add "first parent" to gitglossary Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2012 11:56:41 -0700 Message-ID: <7vehspd9g6.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org> References: <1331966864-31687-1-git-send-email-nkreitzinger@gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: git@vger.kernel.org, jrnieder@gmail.com, bfields@fieldses.org, phil.hord@gmail.com To: Neal Kreitzinger X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Sun Mar 18 19:57:18 2012 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 1S9LI6-00026a-EG for gcvg-git-2@plane.gmane.org; Sun, 18 Mar 2012 19:57:18 +0100 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1754561Ab2CRS4o (ORCPT ); Sun, 18 Mar 2012 14:56:44 -0400 Received: from b-pb-sasl-quonix.pobox.com ([208.72.237.35]:36491 "EHLO smtp.pobox.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753838Ab2CRS4n (ORCPT ); Sun, 18 Mar 2012 14:56:43 -0400 Received: from smtp.pobox.com (unknown [127.0.0.1]) by b-sasl-quonix.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6E43D77B9; Sun, 18 Mar 2012 14:56:43 -0400 (EDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed; d=pobox.com; h=from:to:cc :subject:references:date:in-reply-to:message-id:mime-version :content-type; s=sasl; bh=EnREgiZ5eDg33WL4CFwJkPMttkU=; b=dMH+qD pnGHaTsO3fT3QvvKSq/BX1vLoUuUZ+xW2IoqyudSdlQWXSc+K9GFEoySCK759SOJ psuRM4VC41+9a0unfXZMRO1ikHu8twNGANrCQgZF1585gjB1lMc37b/fRIdOWiBi 6Lvav5Og8WOfiF82kP5suolC5fnEx9+Q0PQPM= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=pobox.com; h=from:to:cc :subject:references:date:in-reply-to:message-id:mime-version :content-type; q=dns; s=sasl; b=XmTRIMNBBUvHq8WTo/Q4p/eaEk5uWG6d fmhaJMKjKodrAiGKrZ6AMDLdUPdUtpmaoh8VnjovpMlp0nBtHJxW9q1SN5OXIuQR hBKAI0pXT8w+p/KH4dzPj4/nHdAqdXUtBeDw2DrPvq0sYP8TafD7wg/ktwagMXsC OhJHbrRIz4E= Received: from b-pb-sasl-quonix.pobox.com (unknown [127.0.0.1]) by b-sasl-quonix.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 630B077B8; Sun, 18 Mar 2012 14:56:43 -0400 (EDT) Received: from pobox.com (unknown [76.102.170.102]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by b-sasl-quonix.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id E8C7277B6; Sun, 18 Mar 2012 14:56:42 -0400 (EDT) In-Reply-To: <1331966864-31687-1-git-send-email-nkreitzinger@gmail.com> (Neal Kreitzinger's message of "Sat, 17 Mar 2012 01:47:44 -0500") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.2 (gnu/linux) X-Pobox-Relay-ID: 1A2FA5A4-712C-11E1-8335-9DB42E706CDE-77302942!b-pb-sasl-quonix.pobox.com Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: Neal Kreitzinger writes: > Add "first parent" to "gitglossary" reference manual page. Use the > definition provided by Junio Hamano in a git newsgroup post[1]. > > [1] http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/192523 As the message was written specifically for you, taking what *you* seem to already know, and more importantly what *you* seem to be misunderstanding, into account, I do not think it is suitable for general documentation without rewording. Also, as Jonathan already pointed out, singling out "first parent" and placing it in the glossary is a very odd thing to do. Also see http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/192427/focus=192534 Three entries "parent", "child" and "ancestry" might want to have an explanation in the glossary to give new people the prerequisite, though. child:: parent:: ancestry:: Git represents a specific state of the project in its history with a commit object, which points at zero or more other commit objects as its "parents". When commit A points at commit B as its parent, we say "A is a child of B" and "B is a parent of A". + Parents of a commit is an ordered set, and because a commit object is immutable, the parents of a commit do not change once it is created. On the other hand, a new commit can be created, pointing at any other commit as its parent, so children of a commit is not a mutable set, and there is no inherent order among children.