From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "Jon Smirl" Subject: Re: If you would write git from scratch now, what would you change? Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 11:48:20 -0500 Message-ID: <9e4733910711260848h29bf96c0x961c09cbe600936b@mail.gmail.com> References: <200711252248.27904.jnareb@gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: git@vger.kernel.org To: "Jakub Narebski" X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Mon Nov 26 17:53:39 2007 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 1IwhCI-0007Pw-H6 for gcvg-git-2@gmane.org; Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:52:38 +0100 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1758528AbXKZQs0 (ORCPT ); Mon, 26 Nov 2007 11:48:26 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1758511AbXKZQsZ (ORCPT ); Mon, 26 Nov 2007 11:48:25 -0500 Received: from nz-out-0506.google.com ([64.233.162.226]:65431 "EHLO nz-out-0506.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1758486AbXKZQsW (ORCPT ); Mon, 26 Nov 2007 11:48:22 -0500 Received: by nz-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id s18so393084nze for ; Mon, 26 Nov 2007 08:48:21 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; bh=LtTf8759IZ0krHF2qd6w03GuHcVhs61EDLMObFIgvFU=; b=lIVsN04b/NIGOAvjfooFiikPN233tFrsxYXlfegCWH3zuPXRavzGUv64etG3Za6OENyrdlVFvX126F3sKEgtLt7BK/+OIAQSKaO88XNrjj2/3mkfOozWcdOuI0b9wsTrpLHjZ1AzXMUE3jeSSYPYGw7PcvQfA8wJiwBhtBeJXgo= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=b7JvssURHIhPYcfbY/IEVVSeCRDQ0OuRFEgQa79ey8+lwNOUYLqzbKCJothZB4vjaL4DnKYSWg/JHNwBnE1TJaeTyVUiTc/NefupcjdIokGSqRajq7QiPPnL1jPrx4Kd4jBQMBBvtJtOl4rHzHxvjZNHrhqxCF3W2U7hMdO79/s= Received: by 10.114.161.11 with SMTP id j11mr269050wae.1196095700248; Mon, 26 Nov 2007 08:48:20 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.114.160.3 with HTTP; Mon, 26 Nov 2007 08:48:20 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <200711252248.27904.jnareb@gmail.com> Content-Disposition: inline Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: On 11/25/07, Jakub Narebski wrote: > If you would write git from scratch now, from the beginning, without > concerns for backwards compatibility, what would you change, or what > would you want to have changed? I would sit down and carefully design the command syntax. git's biggest criticism is that it is hard to use and this is mainly caused by the seemingly very complex commands. Much of this complexity could be hidden from the user. I'd also integrated a patch management system like stgit. I'm using stgit commands for 90% of my tasks and it has a different syntax than git (its trying to fix some of the problems). Most current git users are knowledgeable programmers and could handle a rework of the git command syntax. The sooner the syntax is reworked the better in my opinion. The current syntax grew organically as we learned what git needed. Now's the time to use this knowledge and design an optimal command structure. -- Jon Smirl jonsmirl@gmail.com