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Re: Command-line interface thoughts

From
Michael Haggerty <mhagger@alum.mit.edu>
Date
Jun 9, 2011, 19:17 UTC
Message-ID
<4DF11C3B.4000804@alum.mit.edu>
In-Reply-To
<7v8vtayhnm.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
On 06/09/2011 08:38 PM, Junio C Hamano wrote:
Show 7 quoted lines
> Michael Haggerty <mhagger@alum.mit.edu> writes:
>> Wouldn't the four trees described above contain information equivalent
>> to the contents of the index?
> 
> In the same sense that you can re-create the state in the index by running
> the merge again between HEAD and MERGE_HEAD, yes, they probably do, but is
> that a useful question to ask?

The questions is obviously not useful if the only answer is the one that you give.

But it seems to me that the four pseudo-trees NEXT, OURS, THEIRS, and BASE are a complete and self-consistent alternative representation of the information contained in the index. If this is true, then I claim that this representation would be much easier to understand and remember than the index stages (with its highly mnemonic names 0, 1, 2, and 3!) and the irregular myriad of commands and options currently needed to access it.

Show 5 quoted lines
> I think this mega-thread served its purpose. It started to explore "will
> it make it easier to understand and explain if we use these tokens to name
> trees that do not exist in reality?" which is a worthy thing to do.  The
> conclusion appears to be "well we do not even know what exactly these
> tokens mean in certain situations."

Why do you reach that conclusion? Are you claiming that the proposed definitions of the four pseudo-trees upthread are incorrect or insufficiently defined?

We are about to introduce git at my company, and this is one of the points that makes me cringe when I think of explaining it to developers (let alone non-developers). Even here on the git mailing list, where most people are numbed to the git UI, there has been a lot of confusion about how to get needed information from the index. And I truly believe that the commands currently needed to access the information in the index are so nonuniform that half of the participants in this discussion will have to look them up *again* the next time they need them.

Please throw us struggling users a bone :-)
Michael
-- 
Michael Haggerty
mhagger@alum.mit.edu
http://softwareswirl.blogspot.com/
Previous: Junio C HamanoNext: Jeff King
Message 70 of 98 in “Command-line interface thoughts”
  1. Michael NahasJun 4, 2011
  2. Jakub NarebskiJun 4, 2011
  3. Michael NahasJun 5, 2011
  4. Jakub NarebskiJun 5, 2011
  5. Scott ChaconJun 5, 2011
  6. Jakub NarebskiJun 5, 2011
  7. Junio C HamanoJun 6, 2011
  8. Michael J GruberJun 6, 2011
  9. Michael NahasJun 6, 2011
  10. Jakub NarebskiJun 6, 2011
  11. Michael J GruberJun 6, 2011
  12. Jakub NarebskiJun 8, 2011
  13. Junio C HamanoJun 6, 2011
  14. Drew NorthupJun 6, 2011
  15. Junio C HamanoJun 6, 2011
  16. Michael J GruberJun 6, 2011
  17. Junio C HamanoJun 6, 2011
  18. Scott ChaconJun 6, 2011
  19. Junio C HamanoJun 6, 2011
  20. Michael J GruberJun 7, 2011
  21. Jonathan NiederJun 7, 2011
  22. Holger HellmuthJun 7, 2011
  23. Jonathan NiederJun 7, 2011
  24. Jakub NarebskiJun 7, 2011
  25. Holger HellmuthJun 8, 2011
  26. Jakub NarebskiJun 8, 2011
  27. Holger HellmuthJun 9, 2011
  28. Jakub NarebskiJun 10, 2011
  29. Holger HellmuthJun 10, 2011
  30. Jakub NarebskiJun 10, 2011
  31. Holger HellmuthJun 10, 2011
  32. git diff --added (Re: Command-line interface thoughts)Jonathan Nieder, Jun 13, 2011
  33. Miles BaderJun 13, 2011
  34. Miles BaderJun 13, 2011
  35. Jonathan NiederJun 13, 2011
  36. Junio C HamanoJun 13, 2011
  37. Junio C HamanoJun 13, 2011
  38. Holger HellmuthJun 13, 2011
  39. Michael NahasJun 13, 2011
  40. Jakub NarebskiJun 13, 2011
  41. Holger HellmuthJun 13, 2011
  42. Michael HaggertyJun 14, 2011
  43. Jakub NarebskiJun 14, 2011
  44. René ScharfeJun 7, 2011
  45. Jakub NarebskiJun 7, 2011
  46. Jakub NarebskiJun 8, 2011
  47. Michael NahasJun 8, 2011
  48. Jakub NarebskiJun 8, 2011
  49. Michael NahasJun 8, 2011
  50. Jeff KingJun 8, 2011
  51. Michael NahasJun 8, 2011
  52. Jeff KingJun 9, 2011
  53. Michael NahasJun 9, 2011
  54. Jakub NarebskiJun 10, 2011
  55. Jakub NarebskiJun 9, 2011
  56. Michael NahasJun 9, 2011
  57. Jakub NarebskiJun 9, 2011
  58. Jakub NarebskiJun 9, 2011
  59. Michael HaggertyJun 9, 2011
  60. Andreas EricssonJun 9, 2011
  61. Thomas RastJun 9, 2011
  62. Jeff KingJun 9, 2011
  63. Jay SoffianJun 9, 2011
  64. Jeff KingJun 9, 2011
  65. Junio C HamanoJun 9, 2011
  66. Jay SoffianJun 9, 2011
  67. Junio C HamanoJun 9, 2011
  68. Michael HaggertyJun 9, 2011
  69. Junio C HamanoJun 9, 2011
  70. Michael HaggertyJun 9, 2011
  71. Jeff KingJun 9, 2011
  72. Michael HaggertyJun 9, 2011
  73. Jakub NarebskiJun 9, 2011
  74. Michael HaggertyJun 9, 2011
  75. Jakub NarebskiJun 10, 2011
  76. Michael NahasJun 10, 2011
  77. Jakub NarebskiJun 10, 2011
  78. Jeff KingJun 9, 2011
  79. Michael NahasJun 9, 2011
  80. Jeff KingJun 9, 2011
  81. Jakub NarebskiJun 9, 2011
  82. Michael NahasJun 10, 2011
  83. Jeff KingJun 10, 2011
  84. Junio C HamanoJun 10, 2011
  85. Junio C HamanoJun 10, 2011
  86. Jakub NarebskiJun 10, 2011
  87. Michael HaggertyJun 12, 2011
  88. Junio C HamanoJun 12, 2011
  89. Michael NahasJun 12, 2011
  90. Junio C HamanoJun 12, 2011
  91. Michael NahasJun 13, 2011
  92. Jeff KingJun 13, 2011
  93. Jeff KingJun 9, 2011
  94. Paul EbermannJun 5, 2011
  95. Paul EbermannJun 5, 2011
  96. Michael NahasJun 7, 2011
  97. Junio C HamanoJun 7, 2011
  98. Michael NahasJun 7, 2011

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