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Re: [PATCH 2/8] docs: use `...' instead of `*' for multiplicity

From
Mark Lodato <lodatom@gmail.com>
Date
Dec 18, 2010, 16:32 UTC
Message-ID
<AANLkTikKFSNC0MiZ0be6mUZFqR3atZspD9JfgKVyrrek@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<m3hbebl7tv.fsf@localhost.localdomain>
On Sat, Dec 18, 2010 at 5:00 AM, Jakub Narebski <jnareb@gmail.com> wrote:
Show 14 quoted lines
> Mark Lodato <lodatom@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Finish the work of 0adda93 (Use parentheses and `...' where appropriate)
>> to follow the rules set forth in Documentation/CodingGuidelines.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Mark Lodato <lodatom@gmail.com>
>
> [...]
>
>> -     "git describe [options] <committish>*",
>> +     "git describe [options] <committish>...",
>
> Isn't <sth>... one or more, while <sth>* is zero or more, i.e. shouldn't
> <sth>* be replaced by [<sth>...]?
Yes, I was confused by the * notation - one more reason to get rid of it!
> Hmmm... I see that <sth>* was actively wrong if it was to mean zero or
> more, so your change doesn't only make documentation more consistent,
> but fixes errorneous use of convention.

I think zero or more is correct, which is why I submitted patch 8/8 to change from <commit>... to [<commit>...]. Now I understand that all 8/8 was doing was fixing a mistake I introduced in this patch. I'll correct it in the next version.

Previous: Jakub NarebskiNext: Mark Lodato
Message 5 of 19 in “[PATCHv2 0/8] docs: use metavariables consistently”
  1. Mark LodatoDec 18, 2010
  2. 1/8 fsck docs: remove outdated and useless diagnosticMark Lodato, Dec 18, 2010
  3. 2/8 docs: use `...' instead of `*' for multiplicityMark Lodato, Dec 18, 2010
  4. Jakub NarebskiDec 18, 2010
  5. Mark LodatoDec 18, 2010
  6. 3/8 docs: use <sha1> to mean unabbreviated IDMark Lodato, Dec 18, 2010
  7. Jonathan NiederDec 18, 2010
  8. Junio C HamanoDec 18, 2010
  9. 4/8 http-fetch docs: use <commit-id> consistentlyMark Lodato, Dec 18, 2010
  10. Jonathan NiederDec 18, 2010
  11. 5/8 grep docs: grep accepts a <tree-ish>, not a <tree>Mark Lodato, Dec 18, 2010
  12. 6/8 docs: use <tree> instead of <tree-ish>Mark Lodato, Dec 18, 2010
  13. Jonathan NiederDec 18, 2010
  14. 7/8 docs: use <commit> instead of <commit-ish>Mark Lodato, Dec 18, 2010
  15. Jonathan NiederDec 18, 2010
  16. 8/8 describe docs: note that <commit> is optionalMark Lodato, Dec 18, 2010
  17. Jonathan NiederDec 18, 2010
  18. Mark LodatoDec 18, 2010
  19. Junio C HamanoDec 18, 2010

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