From: Santi Béjar <santi@agolina.net>
Date: Wed, 01 Dec 2010 22:56:21 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH] git-reset.txt: Use commit~1 notation over commit^
Message-ID: <AANLkTik8TNedGBQh7KXvRSf3HTTQf2-yMJC4VA4OOBjQ@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <7vfwuhtafr.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>

On Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 11:06 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
> Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@cante.net> writes:
>
>> What people appreciate, while learning, is constency. Sticking to one
>> notation is better than giving multiple choices. And the "^" isn't
>> exactly readable, don't you agree?
>>
>>     HEAD^^^^^^^^
>>
>> Right. How many was there again?
>
> There is no question that you need to really count them, and that is why
> we invented HEAD~8 notation in the first place.  It however is wrong to
> use the above illustration to defend your change that replaces "HEAD^"
> with "HEAD~1".
>
> The thing is, you need to name/call the previous one a lot more often than
> you need to call the eighth previous one.  The previous one "HEAD~1" is
> special because it directly relates to the current commit (it is the first
> parent of the current commit) and that is why people often need to access
> it.

Additionaly, you must know about the ^ notation. That is the only way
refer to the second parent HEAD^2, for example.

HTH,
Santi