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Re: git send-email should not allow 'y' for in-reply-to

From
Antoine Pelisse <apelisse@gmail.com>
Date
Jan 11, 2013, 21:53 UTC
Message-ID
<CALWbr2xasF1y9j3G=-fQ9Wwg41Ymv=MMsWoqyuhweDov9KpRvg@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<20130111212325.GA18193@sigill.intra.peff.net>
On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 10:23 PM, Jeff King <peff@peff.net> wrote:
Show 21 quoted lines
> On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 08:13:57PM +0000, Matt Seitz (matseitz) wrote:
>
>> > > How about "What Message-ID to use as In-Reply-To for the first email?"
>> > > or "Provide the Message-ID to use as In-Reply-To for the first
>> > > email:".
>> >
>> > seem fine to me. Maybe somebody who has been confused by it can offer
>> > more. At any rate, patches welcome.
>>
>> Suggestion: "Message-ID to use as In-Reply-To for the first email:".
>>
>> Simple and unlikely to generate a "y" or "n" response.  Putting
>> "Message-ID" first makes it more obvious what data is being asked for
>> by this prompt.
>
> You'd think. But the existing message that has been causing problems is:
>
>   Message-ID to be used as In-Reply-To for the first email?
>
> which is more or less what you are proposing. I do think a colon rather
> than a question mark helps indicate that the response is not yes/no.
That is true.

I'm definitely not a wording person, but assuming people who make the mistake probably don't read the whole sentence out of laziness (that might be somehow extreme though ;), starting it with "what" makes it obvious at first sight that you can't answer yes/no. That is not true if the message starts with Message-ID .. which doesn't look like a question. Now it feels like you have agree or not.

Antoine,
Previous: Jeff KingNext: Junio C Hamano
Message 3 of 8 in “Re: git send-email should not allow 'y' for in-reply-to”
  1. Matt Seitz (matseitz)Jan 11, 2013
  2. Jeff KingJan 11, 2013
  3. Antoine PelisseJan 11, 2013
  4. Junio C HamanoJan 11, 2013
  5. Antoine PelisseJan 11, 2013
  6. Junio C HamanoJan 11, 2013
  7. Ben AvelingJan 12, 2013
  8. Junio C HamanoJan 12, 2013

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