Re: [PATCH] git-commit.txt: Order options alphabetically

From: Jan Krüger <jk@jk.gs>
Date: Dec 2, 2010, 08:53 UTC
Message-ID: <20101202095324.34237fb2@jk.gs>
In-Reply-To: <87aakpt7uw.fsf@picasso.cante.net>

[Cc un-culled]

--- Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@cante.net> wrote:

> The reader have to guess "imagined groups"? Hm, that's interesting.

Perhaps a more desirable (and agreeable) patch would introduce group subheadings, then? I agree with the majority of people who chimed in here that functional grouping is a good thing. Perhaps we should actually commit to that by having explicit groups.

In rev-list-related options we already have a couple of explicit groups. I think I'd go insane if I ever had to find anything in there without those groups.

> [...] Git's command
> line is inconsistent in many places and there is room for improvement.
> Documentation is one way to spot those.

That seems to be the only reason you've brought forward for alphabetic sorting, except the claim that "people read from top to bottom" (which is essentially true, but I don't think anybody would read, say, a printed dictionary all the way through; the alphabetic ordering there is for being able to index/search the content in the absence of another way to index/search).

In any case, the end user will probably be more often interested in appropriately grouped options than in being able to easily find inconsistencies between various commands.

-Jan