Re: Barebone Porcelain. Where to stop?

From: Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
Date: Jul 18, 2005, 18:59 UTC
Message-ID: <7v8y04q6sj.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net>
In-Reply-To: <tnx3bqcxvkm.fsf@arm.com>

Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@gmail.com> writes:

> I don't see git going towards stgit at all. Indeed, it gets closer to
> cogito but I still like cogito over plain git since it's easier to use
> (my goal, though, is to add pull/clone commands to stgit so that one
> doesn't need to rely on directly using other tools).

All good to hear. I do not speak for Linus, but I think core should not be competing with Porcelain. To me, there are four purposes for the barebone Porcelain layer:

 (1) provide the end user a minimum UI to do essential things.

 (2) codify the BCP/convention to use the core by higher level
     SCMs to help them stay compatible with each other where
     possible (e.g. "what .git/HEAD means, when it gets updated,
     and to what" was discussed recently).

 (3) serve as an example for people interested in learning the
     core GIT (i.e. they may be starting their own Porcelain).

 (4) implement operations that are heavy on logic/convention but
     does not have much UI need so that higher level SCMs can
     implement their own UI by just being a thin wrapper around
     them (e.g. clone/fetch and push).

Show 5 quoted lines

> I am aware that, probably, the biggest problem with stgit is the
> documentation (and also a lack of regression tests). I hope I will
> find some time soon to write a tutorial and improve the command line
> help. I will setup a wiki in the next few days so that others can
> easily fix/update the documentation.

Wonderful.