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Re: [PATCH 1/2] user-manual: Simplify the user configuration.

From
Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
Date
Jan 21, 2009, 21:19 UTC
Message-ID
<94a0d4530901211319t8126611wc1437848631fe988@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<7v8wp4e5wn.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org>
On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 10:54 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
Show 16 quoted lines
> Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> This is shorter, avoids the burder to think about the format of the
>> configuration file, and git config is already used in other places in
>> the manual.
>
> I am moderately against changing this part to use "git config".
>
> We traditionally introduced how to set configuration variables first by
> editing it in an editor, and this was quite deliberate, in order to show
> how the configuration file looks like, to demonstrate that there is no
> deep magic in the file format, and to explain that it is perfectly Ok to
> edit it without using "git config" command.
>
> I actually wish this section appeared a lot earlier in the document, but
> that is a separate issue.

I agree that it's good that people get familiar with the config format, and that it should appear earlier in the document, perhaps as a separate section. However, for new users that just want to get started any extra burden weighs in the misconception that git is not user friendly.

I read the comments in both threads Jeff pointed out and I have comments regarding the argument that it's easy to edit a text file.

It's easy to *change* a text file, not so much to write something by hand. Although the user would probably just copy-paste the text from the online manual (changing spaces by a tag in the process) there's a possibility that the manual is printed.

This brings back my previous question: where is the home directory in a Windows system?

An idea would be to add an --edit option to git config, so the users don't need to care about the location of the text file and just do "git config --global --edit" which would bring the editor. Although I'm not sure how that would work on Windows since the editor is probably not properly configured at that point.

Now, *nobody* has replied back the comments of providing both the git config command and .gitconfig snip. It was mentioned in both threads and ignored.

Anyone against that?
-- 
Felipe Contreras
Previous: Wincent ColaiutaNext: Hannu Koivisto
Message 10 of 25 in “user-manual: Simplify the user configuration.”
  1. 1/2 user-manual: Simplify the user configuration.Felipe Contreras, Jan 21, 2009
  2. 2/2 Fix typo.Felipe Contreras, Jan 21, 2009
  3. Markus HeidelbergJan 21, 2009
  4. user-manual: Simplify the user configuration.Felipe Contreras, Jan 21, 2009
  5. Jeff KingJan 21, 2009
  6. Felipe ContrerasJan 21, 2009
  7. Jeff KingJan 21, 2009
  8. Junio C HamanoJan 21, 2009
  9. Wincent ColaiutaJan 21, 2009
  10. Felipe ContrerasJan 21, 2009
  11. Hannu KoivistoJan 22, 2009
  12. Felipe ContrerasJan 22, 2009
  13. Junio C HamanoJan 22, 2009
  14. Johannes SchindelinJan 22, 2009
  15. Hannu KoivistoJan 22, 2009
  16. Felipe ContrerasJan 24, 2009
  17. Johannes SchindelinJan 24, 2009
  18. Felipe ContrerasJan 24, 2009
  19. Junio C HamanoJan 25, 2009
  20. Felipe ContrerasJan 25, 2009
  21. Jeff KingJan 25, 2009
  22. Wincent ColaiutaJan 25, 2009
  23. Jeff KingJan 25, 2009
  24. Kyle MoffettJan 25, 2009
  25. Johannes SchindelinJan 25, 2009

Read the whole thread, see it on lore, or plain text.

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