From: Junio C Hamano Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2014 18:40:34 GMT Subject: Re: On "interpret-trailers" standalone tool Message-ID: In-Reply-To: Junio C Hamano writes: > ... I am looking at this > more from the angle of obtaining a useful building block, while you > seem to be thinking of this as a specialized tool for a narrow set > of specifkc tasks. By the way, I am speaking with a bitter experience of designing the original "format-patch" command line parameters, thinking that "This is a specialized tool to let me send what Linus hasn't picked up yet, so the command should take where Linus is and where I am". Not using the A..B syntax turned out to be a poor choice but that realization came long after the ship sailed---back then, A..B syntax was relatively new and it was unclear that it would become the universal syntax we use throughout the system to denote a range of commits in the DAG. The design mistake for starting at a specialized tool for a narrow set of specific tasks took considerable effort to retrofit the general syntax while not breaking the traditional usage. I am being cautious here because I do not see us making the same mistake.