{"thread":{"id":"24556","subject":"[PATCH] SubmittingPatches: Cite the 50 char subject limit","startedAt":"2010-07-28T14:11:25Z","lastAt":"2010-07-28T20:32:07Z","messageCount":6,"participants":["Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason","Junio C Hamano","Joshua Juran"],"isPatch":true,"patchVersion":1,"patchTotal":null},"messages":[{"id":"146624","messageId":"1280326285-10203-1-git-send-email-avarab@gmail.com","threadId":"24556","inReplyTo":null,"subject":"[PATCH] SubmittingPatches: Cite the 50 char subject limit","fromName":"Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason","fromEmail":"avarab@gmail.com","sentAt":"2010-07-28T14:11:25Z","receivedAt":"2010-07-28T14:11:25Z","isPatch":true,"sender":{"key":"avarab@gmail.com","avatar":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/45301?v=4"},"body":"Change the SubmittingPatches recommendations to mention the 50\ncharacter soft limit on patch subject lines. 50 characters is the soft\nlimit mentioned in git-commit(1) and gittutorial(7), it's also the\npoint at which Gitweb, GitHub and various other Git front ends start\nabbreviating the commit message.\n\nSigned-off-by: Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason \n---\n Documentation/SubmittingPatches | 3 ++-\n 1 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)\n\ndiff --git a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches\nindex eb53e06..099b238 100644\n--- a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches\n+++ b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches\n@@ -7,7 +7,8 @@ Checklist (and a short version for the impatient):\n \t before committing\n \t- do not check in commented out code or unneeded files\n \t- the first line of the commit message should be a short\n-\t description and should skip the full stop\n+\t description (50 characters is the soft limit, see DISCUSSION\n+\t in git-commit(1)), and should skip the full stop\n \t- the body should provide a meaningful commit message, which:\n \t\t- uses the imperative, present tense: \"change\",\n \t\t not \"changed\" or \"changes\".\n-- \n1.7.0.4\n"},{"id":"146642","messageId":"7vzkxb4j1v.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org","threadId":"24556","inReplyTo":"1280326285-10203-1-git-send-email-avarab@gmail.com","subject":"Re: [PATCH] SubmittingPatches: Cite the 50 char subject limit","fromName":"Junio C Hamano","fromEmail":"gitster@pobox.com","sentAt":"2010-07-28T17:23:24Z","receivedAt":"2010-07-28T17:23:24Z","isPatch":true,"sender":{"key":"gitster@pobox.com","avatar":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/54884?v=4"},"body":"Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason writes:\n\n> Change the SubmittingPatches recommendations to mention the 50\n> character soft limit on patch subject lines. 50 characters is the soft\n> limit mentioned in git-commit(1) and gittutorial(7), it's also the\n> point at which Gitweb, GitHub and various other Git front ends start\n> abbreviating the commit message.\n\nHmph, we probably would want to do s/50 character/&s/ in the two manual\npages. I do not think if anybody is ready to stand behind the specific\nnumber \"50\", and we can bikeshed about it separately.\n\nThe spirit of having a soft limit is twofold:\n\n - It should fit on \"git log --oneline\" comfortably;\n\n - If your change is too complex to be summarized in such a short\n sentence, you probably are doing too many things in one commit.\n\nThe first does not justify \"50\" any better than other arbitrary limit, but\nwith things like --graph and --source, anything longer makes the resulting\noutput very close to the edge of an 80-column terminal.\n\nThe second does not justify \"50\" either, as your language may be verbose\nor terse (e.g. Japanese can cram far more information in a 140-char tweet\nthan somebody writing in English), but it is a more important one between\nthe two rationales above.\n"},{"id":"146650","messageId":"AANLkTimieHJaw1UmKtQvS4=2i8TrmR5A5zFO13NaNBo=@mail.gmail.com","threadId":"24556","inReplyTo":"7vzkxb4j1v.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org","subject":"Re: [PATCH] SubmittingPatches: Cite the 50 char subject limit","fromName":"Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason","fromEmail":"avarab@gmail.com","sentAt":"2010-07-28T19:25:58Z","receivedAt":"2010-07-28T19:25:58Z","isPatch":true,"sender":{"key":"avarab@gmail.com","avatar":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/45301?v=4"},"body":"On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 17:23, Junio C Hamano wrote:\n> Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason writes:\n>\n>> Change the SubmittingPatches recommendations to mention the 50\n>> character soft limit on patch subject lines. 50 characters is the soft\n>> limit mentioned in git-commit(1) and gittutorial(7), it's also the\n>> point at which Gitweb, GitHub and various other Git front ends start\n>> abbreviating the commit message.\n>\n> Hmph, we probably would want to do s/50 character/&s/ in the two manual\n> pages.\n\nI'm not sure if \"with a single short (less than 50 character) line\" is\nis grammatically correct with \"characters\", since \"characters line\"\nwouldn't make sense.\n\nOn the other hand that sentence violates the rule that when you put\nsomething in parens your sentence should still make sense with\ns/[()]//g, \"a single short less than 50 character line\" is pushing it.\n\nI do not think if anybody is ready to stand behind the specific\n> number \"50\", and we can bikeshed about it separately.\n>\n> The spirit of having a soft limit is twofold:\n>\n>  - It should fit on \"git log --oneline\" comfortably;\n>\n>  - If your change is too complex to be summarized in such a short\n>   sentence, you probably are doing too many things in one commit.\n>\n> The first does not justify \"50\" any better than other arbitrary limit, but\n> with things like --graph and --source, anything longer makes the resulting\n> output very close to the edge of an 80-column terminal.\n>\n> The second does not justify \"50\" either, as your language may be verbose\n> or terse (e.g. Japanese can cram far more information in a 140-char tweet\n> than somebody writing in English), but it is a more important one between\n> the two rationales above.\n\nRight, 50 characters isn't magical. But I find it to be a really good\nindicator that I'm going over the limit.\n\nWhen I want to write something that's 60 characters or more that's\nusually a sign that I should simplify the subject and just write a\nmore detailed body.\n\n50 also fits neatly into interfaces where you want the summary and 2-3\nother things on the page. Like in the Gitweb or Github interfaces.\n"},{"id":"146651","messageId":"7861092D-582B-4918-AF3D-BF595B195673@gmail.com","threadId":"24556","inReplyTo":"AANLkTimieHJaw1UmKtQvS4=2i8TrmR5A5zFO13NaNBo=@mail.gmail.com","subject":"Re: [PATCH] SubmittingPatches: Cite the 50 char subject limit","fromName":"Joshua Juran","fromEmail":"jjuran@gmail.com","sentAt":"2010-07-28T19:49:51Z","receivedAt":"2010-07-28T19:49:51Z","isPatch":true,"sender":{"key":"jjuran@gmail.com","avatar":null},"body":"On Jul 28, 2010, at 12:25 PM, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote:\n\n> On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 17:23, Junio C Hamano \n> wrote:\n>\n>> Hmph, we probably would want to do s/50 character/&s/ in the two \n>> manual\n>> pages.\n>\n> I'm not sure if \"with a single short (less than 50 character) line\" is\n> is grammatically correct with \"characters\", since \"characters line\"\n> wouldn't make sense.\n>\n> On the other hand that sentence violates the rule that when you put\n> something in parens your sentence should still make sense with\n> s/[()]//g, \"a single short less than 50 character line\" is pushing it.\n\nIf the number of characters is less than 50, then there are fewer than \n50 characters.\n\nThis is a short line of fewer than 50 characters.\n\nCheers,\nJosh\n"},{"id":"146652","messageId":"AANLkTimu35sWvQhCVDEQvT5Qswbgqxcnji_D0uR=heVm@mail.gmail.com","threadId":"24556","inReplyTo":"7861092D-582B-4918-AF3D-BF595B195673@gmail.com","subject":"Re: [PATCH] SubmittingPatches: Cite the 50 char subject limit","fromName":"Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason","fromEmail":"avarab@gmail.com","sentAt":"2010-07-28T20:15:43Z","receivedAt":"2010-07-28T20:15:43Z","isPatch":true,"sender":{"key":"avarab@gmail.com","avatar":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/45301?v=4"},"body":"On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 19:49, Joshua Juran wrote:\n> On Jul 28, 2010, at 12:25 PM, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote:\n>\n>> On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 17:23, Junio C Hamano wrote:\n>>\n>>> Hmph, we probably would want to do s/50 character/&s/ in the two manual\n>>> pages.\n>>\n>> I'm not sure if \"with a single short (less than 50 character) line\" is\n>> is grammatically correct with \"characters\", since \"characters line\"\n>> wouldn't make sense.\n>>\n>> On the other hand that sentence violates the rule that when you put\n>> something in parens your sentence should still make sense with\n>> s/[()]//g, \"a single short less than 50 character line\" is pushing it.\n>\n> If the number of characters is less than 50, then there are fewer than 50\n> characters.\n>\n> This is a short line of fewer than 50 characters.\n\nI don't understand the context of that remark or what you're replying\nto.\n\nI meant that I found the \"single short (less than 50 character) line\"\nbit in git-commit.txt, gittutorial.txt and user-manual.txt odd to\nread.\n\nWhat did you mean?\n"},{"id":"146654","messageId":"72F9E3A0-BD79-48CF-9AA6-8473C38C0A98@gmail.com","threadId":"24556","inReplyTo":"AANLkTimu35sWvQhCVDEQvT5Qswbgqxcnji_D0uR=heVm@mail.gmail.com","subject":"Re: [PATCH] SubmittingPatches: Cite the 50 char subject limit","fromName":"Joshua Juran","fromEmail":"jjuran@gmail.com","sentAt":"2010-07-28T20:32:07Z","receivedAt":"2010-07-28T20:32:07Z","isPatch":true,"sender":{"key":"jjuran@gmail.com","avatar":null},"body":"On Jul 28, 2010, at 1:15 PM, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote:\n\n> On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 19:49, Joshua Juran wrote:\n>> On Jul 28, 2010, at 12:25 PM, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote:\n>>\n>>> On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 17:23, Junio C Hamano \n>>> wrote:\n>>>\n>>>> Hmph, we probably would want to do s/50 character/&s/ in the two \n>>>> manual\n>>>> pages.\n>>>\n>>> I'm not sure if \"with a single short (less than 50 character) \n>>> line\" is\n>>> is grammatically correct with \"characters\", since \"characters line\"\n>>> wouldn't make sense.\n>>>\n>>> On the other hand that sentence violates the rule that when you put\n>>> something in parens your sentence should still make sense with\n>>> s/[()]//g, \"a single short less than 50 character line\" is pushing \n>>> it.\n>>\n>> If the number of characters is less than 50, then there are fewer \n>> than 50\n>> characters.\n\nThis demonstrates the distinction between \"less\" and \"fewer\". \nIntensities (like raw numbers) and mass quantities are less; discrete \nobjects are fewer.\n\n>> This is a short line of fewer than 50 characters.\n\nThis demonstrates a grammatically correct way of phrasing a constraint \non line length. I could have put the latter half in parentheses, but \nthen it wouldn't be true. :-)\n\n> I don't understand the context of that remark or what you're replying\n> to.\n>\n> I meant that I found the \"single short (less than 50 character) line\"\n> bit in git-commit.txt, gittutorial.txt and user-manual.txt odd to\n> read.\n\nAgreed.\n\n> What did you mean?\n\nSee above. You could also use \"50-character\" as an adjective, but \n\"single short line (of fewer than 50 characters)\" may be more easily \nparsed. Another option is \"single short line (shorter than 50 \ncharacters)\". I find it less stilted without \"of fewer\", but the \nrepetition of \"short\" is a little clumsy.\n\nJosh\n"}]}