Re: [PATCH v1 1/3] Introduce config variable "diff.primer"

From: Keith Cascio <keith@cs.ucla.edu>
Date: Jan 25, 2009, 22:58 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.GSO.2.00.0901251446260.12651@kiwi.cs.ucla.edu>
In-Reply-To: <20090125221141.GA17490@coredump.intra.peff.net>

On Sun, 25 Jan 2009, Jeff King wrote:

> FWIW, I found it very confusing. I would have expected "diff.options" or 
> "diff.defaults". There is also some precedent in the form of GIT_DIFF_OPTS, 
> but I believe it _only_ handles --unified and -u, so it is not necessarily a 
> useful model.

OK, point taken. I wasn't trying to be idiosyncratic at all. Just trying to be explicit and avoid all confusion. Since all diff options already have default values, primer looks to me like the layer one step above defaults, hence the painting analogy. Mercurial calls it "defaults", but that doesn't mean we should necessarily follow in their footsteps (see http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/107103).

I think being as clear as possible about what primer is, that is it NOT defaults, helps to feel more comfortable with its consequences, i.e. in my opinion, that it will not break things.

                                   -- Keith