From: David Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com>
Date: Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:53:37 GMT
Subject: Re: [doc] User Manual Suggestion
Message-ID: <1A9F6DB0-983F-4A5B-B3B7-33227C11F36A@boostpro.com>
In-Reply-To: <20090425003531.GA18125@coredump.intra.peff.net>


On Apr 24, 2009, at 8:35 PM, Jeff King wrote:

> On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 08:19:18PM -0400, David Abrahams wrote:
>
>>> git show master
>>> git show master:Documentation
>>> git show master:Makefile
>>>
>> I don't believe you need to know about trees and blobs to make  
>> sense of
>> that.  Those are just directories and files.  The whole idea that  
>> trees
>> are a more-general thing that could be used to represent something  
>> other
>> than directory structure and blobs could be used to represent  
>> something
>> other than file contents is way below most peoples' need-to-know
>> threshold.
>
> Actually, it is not the generally of trees that I think is interesting
> there, but the generality of _objects_. That is, each of those  
> things is
> a first-class object, and has a unique name by which it can be  
> referred.


I'm sorry, but I think most people would find that so unremarkable  
that making a big deal about it would lead to "what am I missing here"  
confusion.  Maybe a person who's exclusively used CVS (or older)  
technologies before coming to Git would be happy to know that, but  
it's sort of obvious.  In CVS the lack of first-class directories  
sticks out like a sore thumb.

--
David Abrahams
BoostPro Computing
http://boostpro.com