Re: [PATCH v2 16/16] config: allow multi-byte core.commentChar

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Mar 15, 2024, 05:59 UTC
Message-ID: <20240315055944.GB1741107@coredump.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <0426f7bf-6032-4fc7-886c-c4278c6e105b@app.fastmail.com>

On Wed, Mar 13, 2024 at 07:23:25PM +0100, Kristoffer Haugsbakk wrote:

> Thanks for your work on this. Now I can use dingbats as my comment char.

Truly we have entered a golden age of technology. ;)

Show 12 quoted lines

> > @@ -523,7 +523,9 @@ core.commentChar::
> >  	Commands such as `commit` and `tag` that let you edit
> >  	messages consider a line that begins with this character
> >  	commented, and removes them after the editor returns
> > -	(default '#').
> > +	(default '#'). Note that this option can take values larger than
> > +	a byte (whether a single multi-byte character, or you
> > +	could even go wild with a multi-character sequence).
> 
> I don’t know if this expanded description focuses a bit much on the
> history of the change[1] or if it is intentionally indirect about this
> char-is-really-a-string behavior as a sort of easter egg.[2]

Mostly I was worried that people would take "char" in the name to assume it could only be a single byte (I had originally even started the new sentence with "Despite the word 'char' in the name, this option can..."). And that is not just history, but a name we are stuck with forever[1].

Certainly "char" is an ambiguous term, though. I didn't mean to leave char-is-a-string as an easter egg; that's what I meant by "multi-character sequence". Certainly "string" is a shorter way of saying that. ;) But I wasn't sure its meaning would be obvious without the word "multi-character". Giving an example as you suggested does help that.

That said...

> Maybe it could be more directly stated like:
> 
>   “ Note that this variable can in fact be a string like `foo`; it
>     doesn’t have to be a single character.

I actually do think the "string" nature is mostly uninteresting, and I'd be OK leaving it as an easter egg. What your suggestion doesn't say is that multi-byte characters are OK. But if we think people will just assume that in a modern UTF-8 world, then maybe we don't need to say anything at all?

> (Hopefully UTF-8 is implied by “foo”. Or else “føø”.)

It actually does not have to be UTF-8. If you use an alternate encoding in your editor (and probably set i18n.commitEncoding to match), I think everything might just work. (Though to be clear, I think anybody using non-UTF8 in 2024 deserves our pity either for being crazy or for being stuck working on an antiquated system).

-Peff