Future suggestion's to assist with changes to git.

From: Boyd Lynn Gerber <gerberb@zenez.com>
Date: Aug 28, 2008, 23:10 UTC
Message-ID: <alpine.LNX.1.10.0808281646570.18129@suse104.zenez.com>

I would like to have a positive outcome of all the theaded emails. So this is an attempt to create a new thread that may focus on what can be done in the future.

>From other threads, this was very note-able and I think it is a good

start for this new thread...

On Thu, 28 Aug 2008, Jeff King wrote:

Show 19 quoted lines

> On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 01:23:50PM -0700, Perry Wagle wrote:
>> But, my problem is not git<DASH> vs git<SPACE>, but the slap-dash way 
>> upward compatibility was broken and the "water over the dam" slippery 
>> slope rationalizations that refuse to consider reverting.  "You" will 
>> do it again in the future since you are declaring success here.  And 
>> "you" have likely done it in the past 6 months.
>
> I don't think Junio is declaring success. In fact, I think he has sent
> several messages saying (paraphrasing of course):
>
>  - this was obviously not done in the best manner possible, because of
>    the number of people complaining
>
>  - we will try to do better about notification next time such a change
>    is made. Please make suggestions about how to do so.
>
>  - since we have already released and already broken everybody, and
>    these people are now complaining on the list, there is not much
>    point in trying to notify people of _this_ change now

Maybe on item could be on the git web site news items could be created to announce backward compatibility changes. I think most people do visit the main website to look for information. Having these changes posted there or linked from the main page could be a positive method so something like this will not happen in the future.

> Junio (and others) have tried to be very careful about breaking
> backwards compatibility, especially for scripting interfaces. We thought
> sufficient steps were taken this time, but clearly some disagree.

+1, I am very grateful for the effort of all that try to keep this and the positive things done with git. I really appreaciate what Junio does to notify every one on the email list. What we learned is not everyone reads the changes being made with the announcements. So maybe making a visible link or announcements on the main web page could assist with the notification and prevent future issues.

Show 8 quoted lines

> So please stop making specious claims that there are crazy 
> backwards-incompatibility bugs lurking throughout new versions of git. 
> If there are, then please find and name them. If not, then I think the 
> git community would welcome suggestions about how better to notify users 
> about the rare changes like this one.
>
>
> -Peff

+1 So let's make constructive suggestions so we can prevent this in the future.

BTW, I dropped all the CC's to make sure this starts fresh.

Thanks,

-- Boyd Gerber <gerberb@zenez.com> ZENEZ 1042 East Fort Union #135, Midvale Utah 84047