Re: [PATCH] RFC: Introduce '.gitorderfile'

From: Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com>
Date: Jul 12, 2017, 20:58 UTC
Message-ID: <CAGZ79kYftkxbDY2E_=2w0VYx8COF_yc61h78gs2qaraK9HRSuA@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqinix1j29.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>

On Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 1:44 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:

> Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com> writes:

>
> Just set diff.orderFile to suit your taste without bothering other
> people, I would say.

I must have explained it very badly, I'll try again:

There are 2 different use cases to use diffs.
1. my personal use case to look at logs, diffs.
    I'll just set diff.orderFile and I'll be fine.
2. collaboration.
    When I want to review a patch from the mailing list,
    I could (a) download the patch, apply locally, see the diff
    formatted nicely according to diff.orderFile. Go back to my
    mail client, type an answer, quoting the patch out of order.
    This is very much work for me, so ...

    Alternatively (b) I could ask anyone who wants me to review
    patches to set diff.orderFile to my liking. Then I can stay in
    my mail client and have the diff hunks presented in an order
    that is most effective for review.   (This is nuts, because
    the author would just ask someone else to review their code.
    "Who am I to suggest obscure rules in collaboration?")

    Another alternative (c) is to have this 'suggested' order file
    in place. Anyone that does not care about an order would use
    the suggested order, that coincidentally matches what reviewers
    in this project think is best for review.

    With that, the author has no additional burden and the reviewers
    get better patch presentations by default.

Show 10 quoted lines

>
>>   I want to force myself to think about the design before pointing out
>>   memory leaks and coding style, so the least I would wish for is:
>>     *.h
>>     *.c
>>   but as we have more to look at, I would want to have the most abstract
>>   thing to come first. And most abstract from the actual code is the
>>   user interaction, the documentation.
>
> This is exactly why I invented the orderfile in the first place.

This is my personal use case.

> But such a "policy" is not something a project would want to enforce
> its users all the time; it is left to personal preference of the
> participants.

I kindly ask that we enforce a policy on people sending patches. And to do that I would not want to bloat SubmittingPatches, but rather give a good default, so that people not thinking about this detail, still get it right.

Thanks, Stefan