Re: [PATCH 0/4] rev-list: introduce NUL-delimited output mode

> Justin Tobler <jltobler@gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > If we want to adopt less ambiguous long options names for NUL-delimited
> > input/output options as an alternative to "-z", maybe we could do
> > something like:
> >
> >     $ git rev-list --nul-delimited={all,input,output}
> >
> > where the default for the `--nul-delimited` could be both input/output. 
> 
> I'd prefer not to see that route taken, as it does not look any
> "less ambiguous" at least to me.  Making individual selections are
> almost the same in either syntax, and the only difference is that
> --nul-delimited-input --nul-delimited-output can be independently
> chosen and given and happen to end up selecting both.
> 
> But with --nul-delimited=<value>, you have to plan ahead and choose
> "all".  When your script first wants NUL delimited I/O on the output
> side, you'd write "output".  When later you want to allow it to
> optionally take NUL delimited I/O on the input side, you have to
> notice that you have "output" there already and replace it with "all".
> If the initial version did not have NUL-delimited output, your change
> to add support for NUL-delimited input would be different.
> 
> And you also have to remember that it has to be spelled "all" and
> not "both" when you replace existing "output".
> 
> In other words, I'd prefer to leave independent/orthogonal things as
> such, even if such a general design principle may make the result a
> bit more verbose, at the plumbing level.