Re: [PATCH 1/1] show-ref: improve short help messages of options

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jul 25, 2024, 15:03 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqr0bhldjp.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <ZqH7mDh73vkX4bPT@tanuki>

Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im> writes:

Show 7 quoted lines

> Agreed, I think that this is a sensible change. In practice, this
> feature can also be combined with `--head`, so in that spirit we might
> even change it to:
>
>     "only show tags (can be combined with --branches and --head)"
>
> Not sure though whether this is getting too noisy?

It is somewhat an oxymoron that "*only* show X" can be combined with "*only* show Y" in the first place.

For a reader to accept it without finding it awkward, the reader must understand that

 (1) the command shows by default everything, but

 (2) if any of these "only show" options are given, the command
     stops showing everything and the user can pick which subset of
     "only show" options to give, which work additively.

But if the reader knows that much already, it is redundant to say "can be combined with", isn't it?

So, I dunno.