# [PATCH] rev-parse: fix mismatch quoting of separator in the message 7 messages from 2021-09-22 to 2021-09-22. Participants: Bagas Sanjaya, Taylor Blau, Junio C Hamano, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/56564 ## Bagas Sanjaya, 2021-09-22 11:17 Subject: [PATCH] rev-parse: fix mismatch quoting of separator in the message Message-ID: <20210922111744.675326-1-bagasdotme@gmail.com> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20210922111744.675326-1-bagasdotme%40gmail.com ``` There is a quoting mismatch quoting `--` separator in "no usage string given...." message (`' instead of ``). Fix it. Signed-off-by: Bagas Sanjaya --- builtin/rev-parse.c | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/builtin/rev-parse.c b/builtin/rev-parse.c index 22c4e1a4ff..a35dbad6c4 100644 --- a/builtin/rev-parse.c +++ b/builtin/rev-parse.c @@ -439,7 +439,7 @@ static int cmd_parseopt(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix) ALLOC_GROW(usage, unb + 1, usz); if (!strcmp("--", sb.buf)) { if (unb < 1) - die(_("no usage string given before the `--' separator")); + die(_("no usage string given before the `--` separator")); usage[unb] = NULL; break; } base-commit: 99c99ed8259bf070cd8ae7b51a94904b7cf5c161 -- 2.25.1 ``` ## Taylor Blau, 2021-09-22 17:40 Subject: Re: [PATCH] rev-parse: fix mismatch quoting of separator in the message Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/YUtqp%2B1Mwl2v0kuh%40nand.local In-Reply-To: <20210922111744.675326-1-bagasdotme@gmail.com> ``` On Wed, Sep 22, 2021 at 06:17:45PM +0700, Bagas Sanjaya wrote: > There is a quoting mismatch quoting `--` separator in "no usage string > given...." message (`' instead of ``). Fix it. For what it's worth, I think that the `' style is typographic, since the pair look like English "smart quotes" (as opposed to straight quotes). I have no opinion about which is better, but I don't think the pre-image was necessarily a mistake. Thanks, Taylor ``` ## Junio C Hamano, 2021-09-22 19:28 Subject: Re: [PATCH] rev-parse: fix mismatch quoting of separator in the message Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/xmqqzgs45s15.fsf%40gitster.g In-Reply-To: ``` Taylor Blau writes: > On Wed, Sep 22, 2021 at 06:17:45PM +0700, Bagas Sanjaya wrote: >> There is a quoting mismatch quoting `--` separator in "no usage string >> given...." message (`' instead of ``). Fix it. > > For what it's worth, I think that the `' style is typographic, since the > pair look like English "smart quotes" (as opposed to straight quotes). I > have no opinion about which is better, but I don't think the pre-image > was necessarily a mistake. I thought that we try to avoid "smart quotes" in our messages. And we do not expect our users to be expecting to read their error messages in markdown, so `--` is not a "Fix", either (do we have many instances of such uses of backticks in messages already?). Let's just stick to the true and tried pair of single quotes here. Thanks. ``` ## Taylor Blau, 2021-09-22 19:42 Subject: Re: [PATCH] rev-parse: fix mismatch quoting of separator in the message Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/YUuHP41V9m7cIEBL%40nand.local In-Reply-To: ``` On Wed, Sep 22, 2021 at 12:28:22PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote: > Taylor Blau writes: > > > On Wed, Sep 22, 2021 at 06:17:45PM +0700, Bagas Sanjaya wrote: > >> There is a quoting mismatch quoting `--` separator in "no usage string > >> given...." message (`' instead of ``). Fix it. > > > > For what it's worth, I think that the `' style is typographic, since the > > pair look like English "smart quotes" (as opposed to straight quotes). I > > have no opinion about which is better, but I don't think the pre-image > > was necessarily a mistake. > > I thought that we try to avoid "smart quotes" in our messages. I think UTF-8 smart quotes are generally frowned upon in source code, but I didn't think we had any hard-and-fast rule about whether to prefer 'this' to `that' (for what it's worth, I prefer the former and it seems to be more common). > And we do not expect our users to be expecting to read their error > messages in markdown, so `--` is not a "Fix", either (do we have > many instances of such uses of backticks in messages already?). There are many in code comments, but I could only find a handful in error messages or the description of command-line flags. Thanks, Taylor ``` ## Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason, 2021-09-22 19:59 Subject: Re: [PATCH] rev-parse: fix mismatch quoting of separator in the message Message-ID: <87bl4k7532.fsf@evledraar.gmail.com> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/87bl4k7532.fsf%40evledraar.gmail.com In-Reply-To: ``` On Wed, Sep 22 2021, Taylor Blau wrote: > On Wed, Sep 22, 2021 at 12:28:22PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote: >> Taylor Blau writes: >> >> > On Wed, Sep 22, 2021 at 06:17:45PM +0700, Bagas Sanjaya wrote: >> >> There is a quoting mismatch quoting `--` separator in "no usage string >> >> given...." message (`' instead of ``). Fix it. >> > >> > For what it's worth, I think that the `' style is typographic, since the >> > pair look like English "smart quotes" (as opposed to straight quotes). I >> > have no opinion about which is better, but I don't think the pre-image >> > was necessarily a mistake. >> >> I thought that we try to avoid "smart quotes" in our messages. > > I think UTF-8 smart quotes are generally frowned upon in source code, > but I didn't think we had any hard-and-fast rule about whether to prefer > 'this' to `that' (for what it's worth, I prefer the former and it seems > to be more common). No comment on what's preferred, other than I wish we'd pick a style and stick to it. Just a note that this used to be the way to do it in e.g. the GNU guidelines, I see it isn't anymore though: [1]. 1. https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/standards.html#Quote-Characters-1 ``` ## Taylor Blau, 2021-09-22 20:08 Subject: Re: [PATCH] rev-parse: fix mismatch quoting of separator in the message Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/YUuNOcqClVjQamYh%40nand.local In-Reply-To: <87bl4k7532.fsf@evledraar.gmail.com> ``` On Wed, Sep 22, 2021 at 09:59:51PM +0200, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason wrote: > > On Wed, Sep 22 2021, Taylor Blau wrote: > > > On Wed, Sep 22, 2021 at 12:28:22PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote: > >> Taylor Blau writes: > >> > >> > On Wed, Sep 22, 2021 at 06:17:45PM +0700, Bagas Sanjaya wrote: > >> >> There is a quoting mismatch quoting `--` separator in "no usage string > >> >> given...." message (`' instead of ``). Fix it. > >> > > >> > For what it's worth, I think that the `' style is typographic, since the > >> > pair look like English "smart quotes" (as opposed to straight quotes). I > >> > have no opinion about which is better, but I don't think the pre-image > >> > was necessarily a mistake. > >> > >> I thought that we try to avoid "smart quotes" in our messages. > > > > I think UTF-8 smart quotes are generally frowned upon in source code, > > but I didn't think we had any hard-and-fast rule about whether to prefer > > 'this' to `that' (for what it's worth, I prefer the former and it seems > > to be more common). > > No comment on what's preferred, other than I wish we'd pick a style and > stick to it. Just a note that this used to be the way to do it in > e.g. the GNU guidelines, I see it isn't anymore though: [1]. I agree. But for what it's worth, I think we should: - accept patches, such as this one, which move things in a positive direction - not spend a ton of time or reviewer bandwidth on conversions throughout the tree In other words, I'm happy to see patches like this, or little clean-ups along the way in related areas, but I would be unhappy to see a massive patch to change all instances from one to the other. > 1. https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/standards.html#Quote-Characters-1 Thanks, Taylor ``` ## Junio C Hamano, 2021-09-22 20:58 Subject: Re: [PATCH] rev-parse: fix mismatch quoting of separator in the message Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/xmqqfstw5nv2.fsf%40gitster.g In-Reply-To: ``` Taylor Blau writes: > I agree. But for what it's worth, I think we should: > > - accept patches, such as this one, which move things in a positive > direction > > - not spend a ton of time or reviewer bandwidth on conversions > throughout the tree > > In other words, I'm happy to see patches like this, or little clean-ups > along the way in related areas, but I would be unhappy to see a massive > patch to change all instances from one to the other. Oh, absolutely. But let's not accept a small patch that swaps one bad style `--' to another bad one `--`, which does not improve anything. ```