From: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2011 00:13:01 GMT
Subject: Re: Branches & directories
Message-ID: <20110819001301.GA32743@elie.gateway.2wire.net>
In-Reply-To: <CAMOZ1BsZvXsnnWAPXR7UGKdqOMwuGB-ffaAPk55U_1dcjZUcDw@mail.gmail.com>

Hi Michael,

Michael Witten wrote:

> As an aside, the problem here is likely a manifestation of the fact
> that nobody understands what a branch is

I agree with Michael J Gruber that this is not the useful kind of
hyperbole.

In olden times, there was more talk of the refs in the refs/heads/
hierarchy as being branch heads which point to the tip of a particular
branch of history.  That is still exactly what they are.  By abuse of
language, people sometimes use the term "branch" as a synonym when
there is little risk of confusion.

If you have found tutorial documentation that is confusing on this
point, by all means, fix it.  You are talking as though a
documentation bug is a fundamental design flaw that cannot be fixed by
the likes of you and me.