Re: Difficulties in advertising a new branch to git newbies

From: Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
Date: Feb 6, 2007, 07:25 UTC
Message-ID: <7vodo7karm.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net>
In-Reply-To: <7vveifkczt.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net>

Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> writes:

> If you add another DWIM rule, then I suspect that you would have
> harder time explaining why they get "hey, that is ambiguous"
> error.

I forgot to quote this part.

> ... to resolve "branch" as "remotes/*/branch" if unique?

One of the reasons I do not think it is a good idea is, saying "if unique" makes it sound as if it is sane, but it forgets that what confusion it is bringing into the picture when not unique.

If somebody says "git show master", obviously it would be found under refs/heads/, and most likely there would be a tracking branch refs/remotes/origin/master if you are not the project lead, and if you work on more than one machines using mothership-satellites configuration, you would probably have refs/remotes/note/master and refs/remotes/laptop/master on your mothership machine. Now, "master" is not unique, but I do not think we would want to complain "Gaah, master is not unique! If you mean heads/master, say so".

So addition to "if unique", we need another DWIM rule that says "refs/heads/branch" trumps even when there are branch elsewhere and prevents ambiguity rule from triggering.

And that is only one example I can think of in 10 minutes while watching TV sitting next to my wife, without thinking much about git X-<. Who knows what other additional confusion we are talking about? That is what I fear most.