Re: [PATCH] Have a flag to stop the option parsing at the first argument.

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date: Dec 17, 2007, 13:30 UTC
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0712171328020.9446@racer.site>
In-Reply-To: <223E3B44-92DA-4861-83D6-67E56F70E784@wincent.com>

Hi,

On Mon, 17 Dec 2007, Wincent Colaiuta wrote:

Show 8 quoted lines

> El 17/12/2007, a las 13:55, Johannes Schindelin escribi?:
> 
> > I never had any problems explaining why "-p" goes before the 
> > subcommand here.  Never.
> 
> Would be even better if there was nothing to explain and it all just 
> worked, which is what I'm proposing here. As I said, -p is the only 
> special option which clashes with any non-special uses.

Even in the best of circumstances, you have to teach people a little.

Show 10 quoted lines

> But leaving -p aside, will you oppose any patches that make it possible 
> for people to write stuff like:
> 
> git init --bare
> 
> Personally, I think this is an obvious usability improvement worth 
> striving for. Given that "git --bare init" will continue to work under 
> what I'm proposing, I really can't see any worthwhile argument against 
> it. Because we're talking about a UI improvement for newcomers at no 
> cost to old timers.

My reasoning is like as for "-p". "--bare" is not special to "init". It makes git not guess, but work on the current directory as a bare repository.

In my experience, it is easier to give people a clear-cut distinction between different concepts. Then way fewer surprises will hassle them later.

Ciao, Dscho