Re: [PATCH v2 1/1] branch: advise the user to checkout a different branch before deleting

From: Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com>
Date: Jan 8, 2020, 09:27 UTC
Message-ID: <CAPig+cTDayF0hHn7wSPGNS8h2qPUYhhg9Z8fY_rLQnWmAg-NKQ@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CACg5j26jyWnAtM+mZ-FuN7OQWHpKk5nADG+7J-=metJMdO6+2Q@mail.gmail.com>

On Tue, Jan 7, 2020 at 8:15 PM Heba Waly <heba.waly@gmail.com> wrote:

Show 10 quoted lines

> On Wed, Jan 8, 2020 at 12:16 AM Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com> wrote:
> > By the way, did you actually run across a real-world case in which
> > someone was confused about how to resolve this situation? I ask
> > because this almost seems like too much hand-holding, and it would be
> > nice to avoid polluting Git with unnecessary advice.
>
> No I didn't. I was trying to find scenarios where git can give more
> user-friendly messages to its users.
> I see your point though, so I don't mind not proceeding with this
> patch if the community doesn't think it's adding any value.

My own feeling is that this level of hand-holding is unnecessary, at least until we a discover a good number of real-world cases in which people are baffled by how to deal with this situation. Adding the advice seems simple on the surface, but every new piece of advice means having to add yet another configuration variable, writing more code, more tests, and more documentation, and it needs to be maintained for the life of the project. So what seems simple at first glance, can end up being costly in terms of developer resources. For a bit of advice which doesn't seem to be needed by anyone (yet), all that effort seem unwarranted. Thus, my preference is to see the patch dropped.