Re: [PATCH 2/3] config.txt: perform some minor reformatting

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Mar 14, 2024, 16:22 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqfrwsyeac.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <07d0ac0d11b47983d3aa1760fc01ad92@manjaro.org>

Dragan Simic <dsimic@manjaro.org> writes:

Show 9 quoted lines

>> I was a bit surprised to see such a "preliminary clean-up" step to
>> come before the main change, not after, but separating this from the
>> change to the next paragraph, which is the main change in this series,
>> is nevertheless a very good idea.
>
> The reason why this patch went as the second in the series was simply
> because it's a somewhat unrelated cleanup that performs no actual
> changes
> to the contents of the documentation.

It would have been understandable if it were left at the end, as "after the dust settles". It would made even more sense if it were at the front, "before doing anything else, let's clean up the mess--we do not intend to change the behaviour with this change at all". Having it in the middle was what made me surprised.

Generally, the order of preference is to do "preliminary clean-up" first, followed by the real change. That way, trivial clean-up that is designed not to change any behaviour can go ahead and merged down even before the real change solidifies.

Unrelated changes has no place in a series with a real purpose. Unless the series is about "assorted clean-ups that are not related with each other", that is.

Thanks.