Re: [PATCH] Doc: note minimum scissors line length for mailinfo

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Sep 28, 2020, 18:55 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqq8sctn332.fsf@gitster.c.googlers.com>
In-Reply-To: <20200928183559.GA2285677@google.com>

jrnieder@gmail.com writes:

Show 10 quoted lines

>> +	(dash "-") marks and is at least 8 bytes long ("-- >8 --") is
>
> nit: I think "characters" instead of "bytes" would focus a bit more on
> the intent.  It's true that characters and bytes coincide in this
> example, but using characters might be a bit more in the terms that
> the user is already thinking in.
>
> By the way, is this the right criterion?  Perhaps an alternative
> method would be to make "--8<--" count as a scissors like after all.
> What do you think?

Mildly negative.

It certainly was fun to declare that users can use anything that look like perforation drawn on paper, and to pile more and more heuristics to detect such a line. But I think, instead of describing all these details in the manual, telling the users to always write "-- >8 --" and nothing else would be a better approach.

It would save them time.

Let's not waste people's time by encouraging them to be "creative" in areas that do not make the world a better place. How flexible they can be when drawing the line to mark the part that recipent can discard does not matter in the end result of their work.

Thanks.