From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:56:41 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH/RFC] Add "first parent" to gitglossary
Message-ID: <7vehspd9g6.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <1331966864-31687-1-git-send-email-nkreitzinger@gmail.com>

Neal Kreitzinger <nkreitzinger@gmail.com> writes:

> Add "first parent" to "gitglossary" reference manual page.  Use the
> definition provided by Junio Hamano in a git newsgroup post[1].
>
> [1] http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/192523

As the message was written specifically for you, taking what *you* seem to
already know, and more importantly what *you* seem to be misunderstanding,
into account, I do not think it is suitable for general documentation
without rewording.

Also, as Jonathan already pointed out, singling out "first parent" and
placing it in the glossary is a very odd thing to do.

Also see

  http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/192427/focus=192534


Three entries "parent", "child" and "ancestry" might want to have an
explanation in the glossary to give new people the prerequisite, though.

child::
parent::
ancestry::
	Git represents a specific state of the project in its history with
	a commit object, which points at zero or more other commit objects
	as its "parents". When commit A points at commit B as its parent,
	we say "A is a child of B" and "B is a parent of A".
+
Parents of a commit is an ordered set, and because a commit object is
immutable, the parents of a commit do not change once it is created.
On the other hand, a new commit can be created, pointing at any other
commit as its parent, so children of a commit is not a mutable set,
and there is no inherent order among children.