Re: [jgit] index v2 pull request

> Imran M Yousuf <imyousuf@gmail.com> wrote:
>  > I would like to volunteer to work in JGit;
>  > can someone let me know where I can pick some tasks to implement?
>
>  One of the areas that I think is really weak in JGit and that we
>  need to do a _good_ fetch/push implementation is the branch model.
>
>  For example, if you look at Repository.getBranches() it returns
>  to the caller a Collection<String>.
>
>  But in Git a branch is a heck of a lot more data, and that data is
>  relevant to the end user when we are talking about fetch and merge.
>  There are many configuration options stored in .git/config for a
>  branch, and these are (today) created by git-branch and git-checkout
>  automatically as the user creates and deletes branches.
>
>  JGit has none of this model.  It thinks all that a branch is is a
>  String.  Sad.
>
>  Another thing that bothers me is the packed refs cache.  We toss
>  away the peeled information (the "^" lines), but that data is very
>  useful when you are talking about fetch as well as a few other
>  types of operations, like plotting tag labels onto a history graph
>  (such as how gitk does it).
>
>  The Ref class was started as a means of wrapping up the various
>  important bits of data about a ref (of which branches are a subclass
>  and annotated tags with peeled data is another) but I suspect it
>  didn't quite do everything so these string APIs got created.
>
>  The above is a farily small task, one that any good OO programmer
>  should be able to tackle, but it can be challenging if you are
>  new to Git plumbing as you'll have to learn what are the important
>  parts of a branch/ref/annotated tag.
>
>  As a starting point look at the config file format in C Git and
>  see what is possible in a "branch" and "remote" section; that
>  data needs to be pretty readily available for any Ref, if such
>  data exists.  The backward mapping of Ref->Remote (which does
>  not exist yet, unless Robin created it) is quite relevant for
>  tracking branches.