Re: [PATCH 0/2] merge --summary vs. merge.summary

On Thu, Apr 03, 2008 at 11:03:14AM +0200, SZEDER Gábor wrote:

Think that --diffstat is probably a better name. But your series actually _changes_ the meaning of --summary, which is probably a bad idea for people who have scripted around these.

The problem is that you have two concepts with the same name; giving one of the concepts the name means that the other concept breaks.

I think the most compatible way to go forward is to use two new names:

  1. --summary (and --no- form) changes to --diffstat; --summary remains
     as a compatibility alias for --diffstat.

  2. merge.summary becomes merge.something_else, along with
     --something-else support. merge.summary remains as a compatibility
     option for merge.something_else.

Though I can't think of a good "something_else". Given that there isn't even a command-line equivalent to merge.summary now, maybe just leave it as merge.summary, stop advertising --summary (even though it is a compatibility alias, we officially call it --diffstat), and then there is less confusion on the part of documentation readers (though perhaps more on the part of those who blindly try --summary).

-Peff