Re: [PATCH] wt-status.c: Modified status message shown for a parent-less branch

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Jun 15, 2017, 13:12 UTC
Message-ID: <20170615131245.zh5nuipmaadcfpdx@sigill.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <CAJZjrdXXGb-QrvJW9JusPT597QDnQD_shzVJq-5GN=hZCBJYeA@mail.gmail.com>

On Thu, Jun 15, 2017 at 07:43:17AM -0400, Samuel Lijin wrote:

> > Saying just "staged changes" is definitely accurate. I don't know if
> > some users would find that too terse, too. The phrase "not staged for
> > commit" gives more information if you don't know what "staged" means in
> > the Git world.

Oops, I meant to say "too terse, though". But it sounds like you got my meaning.

> Perhaps there should be a message pointing people at documentation
> explaining the index and staging terminology?

Maybe. I wouldn't want this message to get too verbose. People see it a lot. There advice.statusHints message is already pretty verbose (though I turned it off myself years ago).

> Offhand, this is something I was wondering about the other day - has
> there ever been a discussion of what level of proficiency Git expects
> of its users?

There have been lots of discussions, but none that I can think of as definitive.

I think the general strategy these days is to try to give hints via advise() for confusing situations, and to make it possible for expert users to turn those off.

In general, I think using words from "git help glossary" is OK, but when we can use plainer language without loss of precision, that seems like a good idea. That's just my personal opinion, though.

-Peff