Re: [git-for-windows] Re: [ANNOUNCE] Git for Windows 2.9.3

From: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Date: Aug 23, 2016, 16:05 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.2.20.1608231758260.4924@virtualbox>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.DEB.2.20.1608231736180.4924@virtualbox>

Hi Michael,

On Tue, 23 Aug 2016, Johannes Schindelin wrote:

Show 12 quoted lines

> On Tue, 23 Aug 2016, Michael J Gruber wrote:
> 
> > Maybe you want to re-read what you wrote to trigger his response, and
> > consider adjusting your attitude ("I want this now so I'll release it in
> > Git4Win") rather than the downstream name.
> 
> I am working *very* hard on improving the user experience of Git for
> Windows. And yes, sometimes I have to include something in Git for Windows
> versions that upstream Git does not include in the corresponding version
> number.
> 
> I am really at a loss why you see fit to attack me about that.

In case it is not crystal-clear, let me clarify one very important point. It seems that some people mistake the work I do for something I do on a whim. This is not so.

The patch series that triggered this entire unfortunate discussion introduced the --smudge option, which I have subsequently renamed to --filters and submitted as a patch series to the Git project.

So it is an altogether unfair misrepresentation to state that I introduce features that deviate so much from upstream Git as to require a new name.

The feature in question is also highly unlikely to be used as much by non-Windows users as by Windows users due to the unfortunate choice of the default setting for core.autocrlf. Basically, Windows users have to use those --filters all the time, and in many cases, git cat-file --batch without --filters is simply useless. This is nothing, say, Linux users would care about, of course, but Windows folks like me care a great deal about it.

It is this need that literally guarantees that I will get more useful feedback from Windows users about this feature (and in this context I mean application developers) than from Linux or MacOSX users. And as a matter of fact, I got exactly that: great feedback. This feedback resulted in the addition of the --path option, and of the work I did on making --filters compatible with the --batch mode.

So I take great exception at this criticism. I think these comments were not really thought through, and I also would consider this discussion in and of itself ("is Git for Windows really Git? Should it not be renamed, despite Dscho's best efforts to get them in sync?") to be much more harmful than any feature I introduced into Git for Windows before trying to get it integrated into upstream Git.

Thank you very much for your attention, Dscho