Re: [PATCH] status: hint the user about -uno if read_directory takes too long

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Mar 14, 2013, 15:05 UTC
Message-ID: <7vmwu6yqbd.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <CACsJy8BixM-9bPB3G_WO+W3cTHBFxLQ=YCU2NDEzHmCYW73ZPQ@mail.gmail.com>

Duy Nguyen <pclouds@gmail.com> writes:

Show 11 quoted lines

> On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 10:21 PM, Torsten Bögershausen <tboegi@web.de> wrote:
>>> +     statusUno::
>>> +             If collecting untracked files in linkgit:git-status[1]
>>> +             takes more than 2 seconds, hint the user that the option
>>> +             `-uno` could be used to stop collecting untracked files.
>> Thanks, I like the idea
>> could we make a "de-Luxe" version where
>>
>> statusUno is an integer, counting in milliseconds?
>
> No problem.

A huge problem, as it breaks consistency and more importantly, the suggestion misses the entire point of what "advice.*" variables are.

"advise.*" variables are bools that indicate "Have I learned this somewhat tricky feature and/or characteristics of Git yet or do I still need a reminder?" There is no room for "I still need a reminder if it takes more than N seconds". You either already have got it, or you haven't.

Show 9 quoted lines

>> "to speed up by stopping displaying untracked files" does not look
>> like giving a balanced suggestion.  It is increasing the risk of
>> forgetting about newly created files the user may want to add, but
>> the risk is not properly warned.
>
> How about "It took X ms to collect untracked files.\nCheck out the
> option -u for a potential speedup"? I deliberately hide "no" so that
> the user cannot blindly type and run it without reading document
> first. We can give full explanation and warning there in the document.

But it makes the advise much less useful to introduce more levels of indirections, no?