From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Junio C Hamano Subject: Re: [PATCH] Add subcommand "help" to the list of most commonly used subcommands Date: Thu, 05 Jun 2008 11:13:12 -0700 Message-ID: <7viqwn3g3r.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org> References: <20080605081911.GA5946@mithlond.arda.local> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: Johannes Schindelin , git@vger.kernel.org, gitster@pobox.com To: Teemu Likonen X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Thu Jun 05 20:14:24 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git-2@gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.176.167]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1K4Jyg-0006FZ-7P for gcvg-git-2@gmane.org; Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:14:22 +0200 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1753477AbYFESNa (ORCPT ); Thu, 5 Jun 2008 14:13:30 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1753313AbYFESN3 (ORCPT ); Thu, 5 Jun 2008 14:13:29 -0400 Received: from a-sasl-fastnet.sasl.smtp.pobox.com ([207.106.133.19]:43661 "EHLO sasl.smtp.pobox.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753286AbYFESN3 (ORCPT ); Thu, 5 Jun 2008 14:13:29 -0400 Received: from localhost.localdomain (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by a-sasl-fastnet.sasl.smtp.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id BB38A4DCA; Thu, 5 Jun 2008 14:13:27 -0400 (EDT) Received: from pobox.com (ip68-225-240-77.oc.oc.cox.net [68.225.240.77]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by a-sasl-fastnet.sasl.smtp.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id D94284DC7; Thu, 5 Jun 2008 14:13:20 -0400 (EDT) In-Reply-To: <20080605081911.GA5946@mithlond.arda.local> (Teemu Likonen's message of "Thu, 5 Jun 2008 11:19:11 +0300") User-Agent: Gnus/5.110006 (No Gnus v0.6) Emacs/21.4 (gnu/linux) X-Pobox-Relay-ID: 186F60E4-332B-11DD-9EAF-F9737025C2AA-77302942!a-sasl-fastnet.pobox.com Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: Teemu Likonen writes: > $ git > usage: [...] > > The most commonly used git commands are: > [There's no "help" command in the list.] > > I think it belongs there,... While I do agree that a word 'help' should appear in the above output somewhere, it is a horrible idea to place it in "list of common commands" for two reasons. (1) nobody keeps typing "git help". The reason we may want to mention 'help' in this output is not because it is common; (2) 'help' _is_ different from other commands. It is something one may want to know the presense of when one is still lost after seeing the above quoted output, especially when one is starting to learn. It makes it more difficult to spot it if you bury it as one of the commands in a list. It is reasonable to mention 'help' somewhere in the output, but if we are going to do this, we should make it stand out. Perhaps like this. -- >8 -- $ git usage: git [--version] ... The most commonly used git commands are: add Add file contents to the index bisect Find the change that introduced a bug by binary search branch List, create, or delete branches ... show Show various types of objects status Show the working tree status tag Create, list, delete or verify a tag object signed with GPG See 'man git' and 'git help' for more information. -- 8< --