Re: Implementing branch attributes in git config

From: Pavel Roskin <proski@gnu.org>
Date: May 8, 2006, 01:21 UTC
Message-ID: <1147051300.17371.32.camel@dv>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.63.0605080303410.13588@wbgn013.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de>

Hello, Johannes!

On Mon, 2006-05-08 at 03:05 +0200, Johannes Schindelin wrote:

> The ["blablabla"] syntax fails the is-it-obvious-what-this-does test. What 
> *is* wrong with the " for " syntax? IIRC it was even proposed by you, and 
> it happens to be backward compatible.

Not trying to answer for Linus, here's my take.

The "for" syntax is one more layer in the config hierarchy. Adding another layer is a more intrusive solution than relaxing the syntax of the existing elements without changing their semantic.

git-repo-config is "for" agnostic. It doesn't parse "for" (as far as I know).

"for" can be confusing in some contexts, or may force inversion of the hierarchy to make the config file more readable. How would you implement branch descriptions? See this:

[branchdata] description = "netdev" for "Network device development"

and this

[branchdata] description = "Network device development" for "netdev"

The later is closer to English. Or should we use the first approach and "is" instead of "for"?

Now, how can I get a description for the "netdev" branch by one git-repo-config command, without pipes?

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin