Re: [PATCH 0/3] preparatory patches for the submodule groups

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: May 3, 2016, 22:24 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqq7ffalqza.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAGZ79kZK_EtwBps3hcYVkRat2XbpXXXdXkQDrB281rxkedjaGA@mail.gmail.com>

Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com> writes:

Show 5 quoted lines

>> I wouldn't be surprised if many people wished that "git branch" did
>> not list (and required "git branch -l" to list) to scroll everything
>> they are looking away but instead showed what the current branch is.
>
> Isn't that yet another more specialized mode of operation?

Yes. It all boils down to "what is the most common thing people would want" and "which one of these operation modes deserve the short-hand".

Most often, the first one that gets invented ends up squatting on the short-and-sweet "by default without parameter, we do this" slot, and we have to let it squat forever due to backward compatibility.

I think "git branch" that shows all 300 branches is a good example of that--if we didn't have command line prompt support, I am reasonably sure that "git branch --current-branch" would have been added by popular request long time ago, and that would be a more common thing people would want than "git branch -l". I would not be surprised if in an alternative universe in which both "list" and "tell me current" were available back when the "no option default" had not been defined yet, we gave the shortest-and-sweetest to "git branch ---current-branch".