Re: [PATCH 1/2] CI: use shorter names that fit in UX tooltips

> Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote:
>> Change the names used for the GitHub CI workflows to be short enough
>> to (mostly) fit in the pop-up tool-tips that GitHub shows in the
>> commit view. I.e. when mouse-clicking on the passing or failing
>> check-mark next to the commit subject.
>> 
>> That description is truncated to 24 characters, with the 3 at the end
>> being placed by "...".
>> 
>> E.g. the full job name (visible at [1]):
>> 
>>     "regular (linux-gcc-default, gcc, ubuntu-latest)"
>> 
>> Will, when shown in the tool-tip be truncated to:
>> 
>>     "CI/PR / regular (linu..."
>> 
>> There's then a further limit in the expanded view where the job names
>> are observably truncated to 44 characters (including "..."). I.e.:
>> 
>>     "regular (linux-gcc-default, gcc, ubuntu-l..."
>> 
>
> Tooltips like the ones you've pointed out here appear intended to be an "at
> a glance" view of the jobs (mostly for showing pass/fail/skip status) - each
> job in the tooltip has a "Details" link that takes you to the job summary
> and logs. In the current state, although the names of the are truncated in
> the tooltip, the information is still easily accessible in the full workflow
> details (one click away). For example, the details for the "linux-leaks" job
> [1] tell me the image, compiler, and job name right at the top of the page.
>
> [1] https://github.com/git/git/runs/4214606314?check_suite_focus=true
>
>> With this change we shorten both the job names, and change the
>> top-level "name" from "CI/PR" to "CI", since it will be used as a
>> prefix in the tooltips. We also remove redundant or superfluous
>> information from the name, e.g. "ubuntu-latest" isn't really needed
>> for "linux-leaks", it'll suffice to say linux. For discovering what
>> image runs that specifically we can consult main.yml itself.
>> 
>
> By optimizing for the tooltip, this patch shortens names to the point that
> they're more difficult to interpret (w32 vs. w32/VS) and/or removes valuable
> context about platform/image/etc. When a user *does* want more information
> on the job, they now have to: 
>
> 1) know that the "CI/PR" job definition is in ".github/workflows/main.yml"
> 2) parse through the file to find the job they want
> 3) correlate that back to the job in the workflow details they're
>    investigating. 
>
> That's a strictly worse experience for an extremely common use-case. What
> use-case is this patch attempting to improve?

>> The above "regular (linux-gcc-default, gcc, ubuntu-latest)" job name
>> then becomes a 1=1 match to the "$jobname" used in
>> "ci/run-build-and-tests.sh". A "( push" or " (pull_request" is then
>> added implicitly as before (from the top-level "on" parameter in
>> "main.yml"). In the tooltip we'll now show:
>> 
>>     "CI / linux-leaks (pu..."
>> 
>> We then have no truncation in the expanded view. See [2] for a
>> currently visible CI run using this commit, and [3] for the GitHub
>> workflow syntax involved being changed here.
>> 
>
> If the only problem this patch really "solves" is making some job names fit
> a bit better into the tooltip and, I think the costs (namely the loss of
> accessible contextual info) outweigh any potential benefits you gain.