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Re: [PATCH] mergetool: support --tool-help option like difftool does

From
Sebastian Schuberth <sschuberth@gmail.com>
Date
Jul 23, 2012, 20:14 UTC
Message-ID
<CAHGBnuMCsxmVN8fCSgazqKUwtJzJJxtrVxjKwCEEhZJ_U0cW9w@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<7vhasyl0gc.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 9:52 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
Show 14 quoted lines
>>  -t <tool>::
>>  --tool=<tool>::
>> -     Use the diff tool specified by <tool>.  Valid values include
>> -     emerge, kompare, meld, and vimdiff. Run `git difftool --tool-help`
>> -     for the list of valid <tool> settings.
>> +     Use the diff tool specified by <tool>.
>
> I do not see how it is an improvement to drop the most common ones.
> People sometimes read documentation without having an access to
> shell to run "cmd --tool-help", and a list of handful of well known
> ones would serve as a good hint to let the reader know the kind of
> commands the front-end is capable of spawning, which in turn help
> such a reader to imagine how the command is used to judge if it is
> something the reader wants to use.

I don't agree. What "most common ones" are depends on your platform and is sort of subjective. So it should be either all or non here. Your argument about people not having shell access is a valid one, but still that would mean to list all tools in my opinion. And listing all tools again thwarts our goal to reduce the number of places where new merge / diff tools need to be added. For people adding new merge / diff tools it is just clearer what places need to be modified if there are no places that list an arbitrary subset of tools.

-- 
Sebastian Schuberth
Previous: Junio C HamanoNext: David Aguilar
Message 16 of 40 in “Various merge / diff tool related minor clean-ups and improvements”
  1. 0/4 Various merge / diff tool related minor clean-ups and improvementsSebastian Schuberth, Jul 23, 2012
  2. 0/5 Various merge / diff tool related minor clean-ups and improvementsSebastian Schuberth, Jul 23, 2012
  3. 1/5 Sort the list of tools that support both merging and diffing alphabeticallySebastian Schuberth, Jul 23, 2012
  4. 2/5 Use variables for the lists of tools that support merging / diffingSebastian Schuberth, Jul 23, 2012
  5. Junio C HamanoJul 23, 2012
  6. Sebastian SchuberthJul 23, 2012
  7. 1/4 Use variables for the lists of tools that support merging / diffingSebastian Schuberth, Jul 23, 2012
  8. Junio C HamanoJul 23, 2012
  9. Sebastian SchuberthJul 23, 2012
  10. 3/5 Explicitly list all valid diff tools and document --tool-help as an optionSebastian Schuberth, Jul 23, 2012
  11. Junio C HamanoJul 23, 2012
  12. mergetool: support --tool-help option like difftool doesJunio C Hamano, Jul 23, 2012
  13. Sebastian SchuberthJul 23, 2012
  14. mergetool: support --tool-help option like difftool doesSebastian Schuberth, Jul 23, 2012
  15. Junio C HamanoJul 23, 2012
  16. Sebastian SchuberthJul 23, 2012
  17. David AguilarJul 23, 2012
  18. Junio C HamanoJul 23, 2012
  19. Sebastian SchuberthJul 23, 2012
  20. Junio C HamanoJul 23, 2012
  21. Re*: mergetool: support --tool-help option like difftool doesJunio C Hamano, Aug 23, 2012
  22. David AguilarAug 23, 2012
  23. Junio C HamanoAug 23, 2012
  24. David AguilarAug 24, 2012
  25. Jens LehmannAug 26, 2012
  26. 4/5 Make sure to use Araxis' "compare" and not e.g. ImageMagick'sSebastian Schuberth, Jul 23, 2012
  27. Junio C HamanoJul 23, 2012
  28. Make sure to use Araxis' "compare" and not e.g. ImageMagick'sSebastian Schuberth, Jul 23, 2012
  29. Junio C HamanoJul 23, 2012
  30. Sebastian SchuberthJul 23, 2012
  31. Junio C HamanoJul 23, 2012
  32. Sebastian SchuberthJul 23, 2012
  33. David AguilarJul 23, 2012
  34. Sebastian SchuberthJul 23, 2012
  35. Andreas SchwabJul 23, 2012
  36. Junio C HamanoJul 23, 2012
  37. Sebastian SchuberthJul 23, 2012
  38. Junio C HamanoJul 23, 2012
  39. Sebastian SchuberthJul 23, 2012
  40. 5/5 Add a few more code comments and blank lines in guess_merge_toolSebastian Schuberth, Jul 23, 2012

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