Re: [PATCH 1/2] Documentation/git-checkout.txt: clarify usage

From: Philip Oakley <philipoakley@iee.org>
Date: Dec 17, 2012, 22:05 UTC
Message-ID: <050EEC5C75504678BC8A858FD0A55B19@PhilipOakley>
In-Reply-To: <7v1ueol6ut.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>

From: "Junio C Hamano" <gitster@pobox.com> Sent: Monday, December 17, 
2012 9:13 PM

Show 19 quoted lines

> "Philip Oakley" <philipoakley@iee.org> writes:
>
>> From: "Junio C Hamano" <gitster@pobox.com> Sent: Monday, December 17,
>>> This is to "check out the branch" ;-)
>>> ...
>>
>> From a user perspective it's better to refer to the working directory
>> first rather than the internal mechanics.
>>
>>    Prepare to work on <branch>, by updating the files in the
>>    working tree and index to the branch's previous content, and
>>    pointing HEAD to it.
>
> I agree that the mention of "pointing HEAD to" may be better to be
> rephrased in the user facing terms.
>
> Because the primary purpose of "git checkout <branch>" is to "check
> out the branch so that further work is done on that branch", that
> aspect of the behaviour should be mentioned first.

That part is OK, but it is a bit tautological.

>               Updating of the
> working tree files and the index is the implemenation detail of
> starting to work on that branch.

It was this part that I felt needed the worker's work-tree mentioned first.

It could be argued that workers think they do work on the tree, and that the branch name is an administrative place holder.

When the two sentences are back to back it was OK, as you had still included the key element of my suggestion.

>
> So your suggestion is going backwards, I'd have to say.
>

A misunderstanding of the suggestion perhaps?

Philip