From: Dr. Adam Nielsen <admin@in-ici.net>
Date: Tue, 04 Jun 2019 17:22:43 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH] make slash-rules more readable
Message-ID: <8984a44f-b80c-9d04-3094-c17bb4e17d20@in-ici.net>
In-Reply-To: <0c9f79f3-b43b-5f32-d217-ff92531c5da7@iee.org>

Hi Philip

On 04.06.19 14:34, Philip Oakley wrote:
> I think the rules end up being difficult because we describe them from a 
> coders implementation viewpoint, rather than a users descriptive 
> viewpoint. Thus we avoided things like the difficult to code slashes in 
> the front/middle, and we get caught on the equivalent of neither/nor 
> phrases, which can even be difficult for native English speakers.
> 
> Later on there is a recursively/respectively issue (latter not 
> explicitly mentioned).  There is also an "Except if" not-a-proper 
> sentence. (mentioned off-line)
> 
> After sleeping on it, I came up with:
> 
>     The slash '/' is used as the directory separator. Separators may
>     occur at the beginning, middle or end of the .gitignore search pattern.
> 
>     If there is a separator at the beginning or middle (or both) of the
>     pattern, then the pattern is relative to the directory level of the
>     particular .gitignore file itself. Otherwise the pattern may also
>     match at any level below the .gitignore level.
> 
>     If there is a separator at the end of the pattern then the pattern
>     will only match directories, otherwise the pattern can match both
>     files and directories.
> 
>     Examples text..
> 
>     The special '*' ...
> 
>     The special '**' ...
> 

I am really happy about this improvement (or rather this new creation). 
In my opinion it is really easy to understand now, and it solves a ton 
of other issues we had with the preceding proposals.

I will create a new patch.

All the best,
Adam