Re: [PATCH 2/2] format-patch: introduce format.defaultTo

From: Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@gmail.com>
Date: Jan 6, 2014, 19:02 UTC
Message-ID: <CALkWK0m3wQ7=fDOO5q3-h1T+ScFp7c29jtaDWq_0W37RVLsWdg@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20140106183548.GG3881@google.com>

Jonathan Nieder wrote:

Show 10 quoted lines

>  1. Most config settings are in noun form: e.g.,
>     "[remote] pushDefault = foo".  That makes their names easy to guess
>     and makes them easy to talk about: I set the default remote for
>     pushing by changing the remote.pushdefault setting.
>
>     '[url "<foo>"] insteadOf' is an exception to that and a bit of an
>     aberration.
>
>     This new '[format] defaultTo' repeats the same end-with-a-preposition
>     mistake, while I think it would be better to learn from it.

I agree that it's somewhat unconventional to allow people to put a <revision> as a configuration variable value, but I think it's useful. url.<url>.insteadOf is incredibly useful, for instance.

>  2. Wouldn't a more natural default be @{u}..HEAD instead of relying on
>     the user to do the make-work of keeping a local branch that tracks
>     master up to date?

Like I said in my message to Junio, @{u} is not necessarily the "best" default for all workflows, although you can fill that into format.defaultTo.