Re: What's cooking in git.git (Dec 2010, #01; Sat, 4)

From: Yann Dirson <dirson@bertin.fr>
Date: Dec 6, 2010, 11:31 UTC
Message-ID: <20101206123136.2acab63a@chalon.bertin.fr>
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTinJu0KzXZ2Rjbs2+XH7T=Gq5MOajxo51DHtqoGZ@mail.gmail.com>

On Mon, 06 Dec 2010 18:13:06 +0900 Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org> wrote:

> On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 5:48 PM, Yann Dirson <dirson@bertin.fr> wrote:
> it's is normal and good that option names are sometimes revisited and
> improved -- nothing is perfect on the first try.  By keeping the old
> option around as a deprecated alias, we avoid compatibility issues.

... except Junio advocates *not* deprecating this one, since it is here since ages.

Show 7 quoted lines

> That doesn't mean there aren't _any_ issues, but they tend to be
> pretty minor  (such as the "space used by the deprecation option" that
> you complain about).
> 
> Maybe if you renamed every option simultaneously, there would be
> confusion, but seriously, it's only one option.  It's not going to be
> a problem.

I'm not sure we want to use "it's only one option" as an excuse. It can easily become a bad habit.

> There is no "usability" problem.

Completion of "git diff --<TAB>" in stable branch gives 44 choices here. One of the most frequent criticisms about git I hear among coworkers is that there are so many commands and options. Will be funny to explain them that "we just added another one, for no technical reason".

-- 
Yann Dirson - Bertin Technologies