Re: [PATCH] Change softrefs file format from text (82 bytes per entry) to binary (40 bytes per entry)

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date: Jun 10, 2007, 08:02 UTC
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0706100900420.4059@racer.site>
In-Reply-To: <200706092025.30156.johan@herland.net>

Hi,

On Sat, 9 Jun 2007, Johan Herland wrote:

Show 8 quoted lines

> The text-based softrefs file format uses 82 bytes per entry (40 bytes 
> from_sha1 in hex, 1 byte SP, 40 bytes to_sha1 in hex, 1 byte LF).
> 
> The binary softrefs file format uses 40 bytes per entry (20 bytes 
> from_sha1, 20 bytes to_sha1).
> 
> Moving to a binary format increases performance slightly, but sacrifices 
> easy readability of the softrefs files.

It is bad style to introduce one type, and then change it to another in a backwards-incompatible way. Either you make it backwards compatible, or you start with the second format, never even mentioning that you had another format.

Ciao, Dscho