Re: [PATCH 0/2] [RFD] Using gitrevisions :/search style with other operators

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Dec 9, 2010, 06:22 UTC
Message-ID: <7vsjy7h3db.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <20101209015926.GA31119@burratino>

Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com> writes:

Show 12 quoted lines

> Jakub Narebski wrote:
>
>> You would need HEAD{^{/foo}^@}x3, or use special rule that HEAD^{/foo}x2
>> means really HEAD^{/foo}^@^{/foo}, with ^@ used to join them.
>
> That said, does ^2x500 really do something meaningful that a person
> would ever need?  I like the
>
> 	^{:nth(3)/foo}
>
> syntax because perl6 supports m:nth(3)/foo/, suggesting a menu of
> already-defined modifiers to implement when they prove useful,...

Can you explain what the colon in "$commit^{:nth(3)/foo}" is doing?

Are we declaring anything that begins with ':' is a magic inside ^{...} construct?

I do not think nth($n) without specifying where to start (iow, what the current ":/foo" implementation does but with "three levels deep") makes any sense, but because the main point of your argument is that we can have modifies other than nth($n) that may make sense in such a context, I would want to make sure anything we come up with is extensible to that syntax.

On the "starting from any ref" front, I think "!" (as in ":/!some magic") was the introducer we reserved for such a magic some time ago, so perhaps on the "starting from this commit" side, "^{!magic/foo}" may be more appropriate?