Re: git checkout error

From: Angelo Borsotti <angelo.borsotti@gmail.com>
Date: Oct 10, 2012, 08:52 UTC
Message-ID: <CAB9Jk9BmwuGXsQmQR3Ck58h2uA4gam8n-VWJTwgv_puJZB2sXg@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <7vpq4qdbas.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>

Hi Junio

> It is not difficult.  The discussion on this list is usually done
> via patches, and without one, constant talking is buried in other
> noise and often go unnoticed.

Could you accept for very small changes also the simple indication of the change itself instead of a patch?

>
> There is however an issue about documentation consistency.  Do we
> use elsewhere ( A | B | C ... ) to denote "You must write one (and
> only one) among A, B, C, ..." consistently in the documentation?

There is no standard for it. Posix provides a standard for commands:

     http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/

but does not mention (normal) parentheses to indicate choice. There is one applicable standard for this, though, the ISO 14977:

     http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-14977.pdf

which gives parentheses "()" the meaning of grouping (and then with "|" inside them, the meaning of choice). Parentheses are used in:

    - git branch
    - git commit
    - git reset
    - git remote
    - git submodule
    - git bisect
    - git grep
    - git am
    - git apply
    - git format-patch
    - git cat-file
    - git commit-tree
    - git rev-list
    - git update-index

I did not find in the documentation an explanation of the use of parentheses, but to me they seem to have been used consistently.

-Angelo