Re: git-show --stat on first commit

From: Horst H. von Brand <vonbrand@inf.utfsm.cl>
Date: Nov 21, 2006, 18:14 UTC
Message-ID: <200611211814.kALIE4EQ009257@laptop13.inf.utfsm.cl>
In-Reply-To: <jnareb@gmail.com>

Jakub Narebski <jnareb@gmail.com> wrote:

> Peter Baumann wrote:
> > On 2006-11-21, Santi BÃ©jar <sbejar@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> On 11/21/06, Andy Parkins <andyparkins@gmail.com> wrote:

[...]

> >> In general the initial commit diff (or stat) is hidden, but perhaps it
> >> make sense to show it in "git show", you asked fo this specifically.

> > Why not make --root the default? I also stumbled over this behaviour and
> > even asked on this list.

> > In my opinion this will help new users which are supprised that they
> > can't get the diff of the inital commit (which is totaly non-intuitiv
> > behavior).

> > And one less "wart" to clean, which another thread is all about. :-)

Count me in! A freshly created repo should be just empty, not some strange construction that isn't a real repo. The empty set /is/ real useful, you know. Even if it is just for symmetry.

> Because for projects imported into git first commit diff is huge,
> and not very interesting.

That isn't your call to make. Sure, if I just untarred something large and gitified it, I /know/ the diff to "before" is huge, and not really informative, and I'll abstain from asking for it. But if I just started a project with a half dozen files, I'd like to see what came before, or look at the difference to "5 commits back" (which just happens to be every change, as there are 4 commits in all).

The main focus here is on large(ish) projects with a lot of history, but if you want to be able to get some mindshare you will have to look at the other end, projects just getting off the ground.

-- 
Dr. Horst H. von Brand                   User #22616 counter.li.org
Departamento de Informatica                    Fono: +56 32 2654431
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