Re: [PATCH v2] gitcli: tweak "man gitcli" for clarity

["Robert P. J. Day" <rpjday@crashcourse.ca>]

On Tue, 21 Nov 2017, Kevin Daudt wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 04:47:42PM -0500, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> > On Tue, 21 Nov 2017, Kevin Daudt wrote:
> >
> > > On Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 04:27:59PM -0500, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> > > > No major changes, just some rewording and showing some variations of
> > > > general Git commands.
> > > >
> > > > Signed-off-by: Robert P. J. Day <rpjday@crashcourse.ca>
> > > >
> > > > ---
> > > >
> > > > diff --git a/Documentation/gitcli.txt b/Documentation/gitcli.txt
> > > > index 9f13266a6..d690d1ff0 100644
> > > > --- a/Documentation/gitcli.txt
> > > > +++ b/Documentation/gitcli.txt
> > > > @@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ gitcli
> > > >  DESCRIPTION
> > > >  -----------
> > > >
> > > > -This manual describes the convention used throughout Git CLI.
> > > > +This manual describes the conventions used throughout Git CLI.
> > > >
> > > >  Many commands take revisions (most often "commits", but sometimes
> > > >  "tree-ish", depending on the context and command) and paths as their
> > > > @@ -32,32 +32,35 @@ arguments.  Here are the rules:
> > > >     between the HEAD commit and the work tree as a whole".  You can say
> > > >     `git diff HEAD --` to ask for the latter.
> > > >
> > > > - * Without disambiguating `--`, Git makes a reasonable guess, but errors
> > > > -   out and asking you to disambiguate when ambiguous.  E.g. if you have a
> > > > + * Without a disambiguating `--`, Git makes a reasonable guess, but can
> > > > +   error out, asking you to disambiguate when ambiguous.  E.g. if you have a
> > >
> > > 'Can' error out implies that it sometimes would not error out when
> > > there is ambiguity. Are there situation where git does not error out
> > > in that case?
> >
> >   i would say (based on my limited knowledge) that if the heuristic
> > kicks in and works fine, then things will work. i think it's fair to
> > say that git "can" error out if the heuristic fails.
> >
> > rday
>
> In most cases that I'm aware of, you have to be explicit. If for
> example you want to refer to a file that's not in the working tree,
> you have to use '--'.  Even with heuristics, it would still have to
> error out when it's ambiguous what the user meant.
>
> So the way you worded it implies that there are situations where git
> knows there are multiple things the user could have meant, but it
> would not error out in that case.

  all right, i will ponder this ... open to suggestions. i would have
to examine the heuristic itself, wondering if it can make the wrong
decision on occasion.

rday

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Robert P. J. Day                                 Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA
                        http://crashcourse.ca

Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
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