Re: [PATCH 1/2] pack-format.txt: define "varint" format

From: Martin Ågren <martin.agren@gmail.com>
Date: Dec 29, 2020, 22:41 UTC
Message-ID: <CAN0heSrEPt3=-uccGk2fKu=ScbE1Bq-cpsvisBcsoXdUC2sz5Q@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqft3yltxo.fsf@gitster.c.googlers.com>

On Mon, 21 Dec 2020 at 22:40, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:

Show 6 quoted lines

>
> Martin Ågren <martin.agren@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > We define our varint format pretty much on the fly as we describe a pack
> > file entry. In preparation for referring to it in more places in this
> > document, define "varint" and refer to it.

Show 12 quoted lines

> We need to be careful when using a generic "varint" to mean the
> older variant as it would confuse readers of OFS_DELTA section.
>
>         ... goes and looks ...
>
> The phrase "offset encoding" is used in the document to talk about
> OFS_DELTA offset.  It is actually what the rest of the code thinks
> is the canonical varint defined in varint.[ch]).
>
> A way to avoid confusion would be to refrain from using "varint" as
> the primary way to describe this size field; instead explain it as
> the "size encoding", to match "offset encoding" used for OFS_DELTA.

Thank you very much for these comments. I will post a v2 soon, which will do exactly this: avoid "varint" in favor of "size encoding".

> It may also help if we added to the description of "offset encoding"
> that it is what other parts of the system consider the canonical
> "varint" encoding.

I will leave this as #leftoverbits, though. I'll "only" fix the omission reported by Ross.

Martin