Re: [RFC] Indicate that Git waits for user input via editor
- From
Lars Schneider <larsxschneider@gmail.com>
- Date
- Nov 15, 2017, 18:07 UTC
- Message-ID
- <7CF0CF44-3772-48D9-A2EF-E501645A6211@gmail.com>
- In-Reply-To
- <CAGZ79kaqyRTaj6=-7Jmb1K6_aSH5-BaEhm7PPyRgJLsHuDF-tw@mail.gmail.com>
Show 24 quoted lines
> On 15 Nov 2017, at 18:51, Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com> wrote: > > On Wed, Nov 15, 2017 at 7:08 AM, Lars Schneider > <larsxschneider@gmail.com> wrote: >> Hi, >> >> Git gathers user input via text editor in certain commands (e.g. "git commit"). >> If you configure a text based editor, such as vi, then this works great as the >> editor is opened in your terminal window in the foreground and in focus. >> >> However, if you configure an editor that runs outside your terminal window then >> you might run into the following problem: >> Git opens the editor but the editor is the background or on another screen and >> consequently you don't see the editor. You only see the Git command line >> interface which appears to hang. >> >> I wonder if would make sense to print "Opening editor for user input..." or >> something to the screen to make the user aware of the action. Does this sound >> sensible to you? Am I missing an existing solution to this problem? > > Can this be put in a wrapper that opens the text editor? > The wrapper would print these lines and then open the text editor; > depending on the operating system, there might even be a command to > focus on that editor window.
Yeah, that would be a workaround. However, in order to take these steps (write the wrapper, enable the focus command) the users needs to understand the problem. That's quite a leap especially for new Git users. They just get the feeling "Git is broken because it hangs".
Can you imagine any downside for an "Opening editor for user input..." message?
> Regarding Git, maybe improve the documentation for how to set the editor > variable?
The sad truth is that 98% of the users do not read the documentation (made up number but close to my observed reality).
- Lars