Re: [PATCH v2 3/5] test: introduce new x_to_tab() helper function

> On Sat, Mar 16, 2024 at 11:48 PM Dragan Simic <dsimic@manjaro.org> 
> wrote:
>> There's nothing wrong with the already existing q_to_tab() function, 
>> except
>> when it's used on strings that contain uppercase letter "Q" in its 
>> literal
>> meaning, which, for example, can happen with git configurations that 
>> contain
>> "*.*Quoted" as the names of their configuration variables.
>> 
>> Thus, let's introduce new x_to_tab() helper function that does pretty 
>> much
>> the same job as the already existing q_to_tab() helper function, 
>> except for
>> replacing "X" with a horizontal tab (HT), instead of replacing "Q".
>> 
>> Signed-off-by: Dragan Simic <dsimic@manjaro.org>
>> ---
>> diff --git a/t/test-lib-functions.sh b/t/test-lib-functions.sh
>> @@ -107,6 +107,10 @@ q_to_tab () {
>> +x_to_tab () {
>> +       tr X '\011'
>> +}
> 
> I'd like to push back on this change since it may lead to an explosion
> of new almost-identical functions. For such a one-off case where
> q_to_tab() isn't appropriate, it's perfectly fine to simply use `tr X
> `\011'` directly in your test:
> 
>     test_expect_success 'foo' '
>         tr X "\011" >expect <<-\EOF
>         some Q stuff
>         whitespaceXhere
>         EOF
>         ...
>     '

> However, if you really insist upon using a library function, then
> either add a general-purpose function which accepts the special
> character as an argument, or just retrofit q_to_tab() to optionally
> accept the special character:
> 
>     # t/test-lib-functions.sh
> 
>     # usage: q_to_tab [<needle-char>]
>     # replace <needle-char> with TAB in stdin
>     q_to_tab () {
>         local c=$1
>         test -n "$c" || c=Q
>         tr "$c" '\011'
>     }
> 
> But this is probably overkill for a one-off case.