Re: Can we do better than "git checkout/add -p"

"D. Ben Knoble" <ben.knoble@gmail.com> writes:

Yes, the 'one hunk at a time' model was easy to implement and start using, but its limitations are apparent. Users want to be able to jump around, starting in the middle and returning to the top later, for example.

It is more or less orthogonal to the reason I started this discussion, though, which is that limiting the direction in which modifications flow restricts the workflow, burdens the user, and makes the process error-prone.

When I see a hunk, I can immediately tell if it is one of three kinds (i.e., those we want to add, those we want to leave in the working tree, and those we want to discard from the working tree). But with 'git add -p' (especially with the original version of the feature, before the 'e' (edit) command was introduced), the third kind must be treated the same way as the second. Then, after I am done with 'git add -p', I must go through the remaining hunks, sift them into two categories (those we want to keep in the working tree and those we want to discard), and run 'git checkout -p' to deal with the latter.

We should be able to improve this workflow without deviating from the 'one hunk at a time' model.