Re: [PATCH] Documentation: add a planning document for the next CLI revamp

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Nov 2, 2008, 03:42 UTC
Message-ID: <20081102034224.GA5261@coredump.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.DEB.1.00.0810311745030.22125@pacific.mpi-cbg.de.mpi-cbg.de>

On Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 05:46:35PM +0100, Johannes Schindelin wrote:

Show 11 quoted lines

> > > +  * 'git branch --switch' : alternative to checkout
> > 
> > Blech. I think switching branches is the one thing that checkout does 
> > unconfusedly. And this is much more typing. Not to mention that So I 
> > would rather see "git switch" if checkout is somehow unpalatable.
> 
> You know, I asked for this because a _user_ told me "Guess how long it 
> took me to find out how to check out a branch!".
> 
> I think if you are not confused by CVS/SVN, the name "checkout" is utterly 
> unintuitive.

OK. I am not opposed to such a change as long as:

 - this is not just _a_ user, but a _common_ user confusion. IOW, I
   don't recall this complaint coming up a lot (or at least not nearly
   as often as other ones do). But maybe you have more data.

 - it is done consistently.

   My initial "blech" was a little premature, as I was thinking "instead
   of checkout", though it does clearly say "alternative" there.

   However, (and somebody else in the thread very cleverly came up with
   this analysis, not me), this is basically going from "verb the noun"
   to "noun --verb". And that's reasonable, if users think in terms of
   nouns. But we should be consistent in applying that transformation,
   and make it available for other nouns that match that verb. In other
   words, "git tag --switch". And however one might manipulate remote
   tracking branches ("git branch -r --switch", I guess).

   Personally I find it somewhat backwards, but I think CVS rotted my
   brain long ago.

-Peff