Re: Consistent terminology: cached/staged/index

From: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Date: Feb 26, 2011, 21:51 UTC
Message-ID: <20110226215139.GA19176@elie>
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTik-jc0ZX9S4bCYV8VBgPXJZsX0U08W2H+jufO8r@mail.gmail.com>

Hi Felipe et al,

Felipe Contreras wrote:

> On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 1:19 AM, Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com> wrote:

Show 14 quoted lines

>>  - mode and blob name for paths as requested by the user with
>>   "git add"
>
> A commit stage.
>
>>  - competing versions for paths whose proposed content is
>>   uncertain during a merge
>
> Multiple commit stages.
>
>>  - stat(2) information to speed up comparison with the worktree
>
> If only a subset of the files are there, it's an 'index', if not, then
> I'd say it's a 'registry'.

These terms you suggest aren't the established ones (as I'm sure you know). Just as with everyday language, there is some resistance to moving to new terms that have not been established for a while. In everyday language, many terms gained popularity by

 - appearing in some document that people read for another reason
 - describing the notion they are meant to describe clearly (or
   having some other feature that makes them likeable)

This is how "staging area" has been gaining popularity, I think --- some (out-of-tree) documentation that is good for other reasons uses it, and it really does seem to be a clearer term than "index" for "place where the next commit is being prepared". Unfortunately, I do not think it is a clearer term than "index" for "the git index, which contains stat() information and pointers to blobs that either belong in the next commit or are participating in a merge conflict". So it does not seem to justify rewriting everything to use it.

Which suggests one way forward --- if you believe you have terms that do describe those concepts clearly, one way to promote them is to write some good, clear (out-of-tree, to begin with) documentation using them. Presumably this documentation would also mention that other people use other terms to avoid confusing the reader.

Hope that helps, Jonathan