On 29 February 2012 06:20, Junio C Hamano <gitster@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Thomas Rast <trast@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>
>>>> '<rev>{tilde}<n>', e.g. 'master{tilde}3'::
>>>> A suffix '{tilde}<n>' to a revision parameter means the commit
>>>> object that is the <n>th generation grand-parent of the named
>>>> commit object, following only the first parents.
>>>>
>>>> Hang on, *grand*-parents?
>>>> ...
>>
>> Perhaps we should reword it as "n-th first-parent ancestor"? Barring
>> confusion about the position of the dashes, that leaves little room for
>> error.
>
> I think we could either go "easier to read but not precise"
>
> ... that is the <n>th generation (grand-)parent of ...
>
> or "may sound scary but correct"
>
> the ancestor reached by walking the first-parent chain <n> times
>
> I am not sure which bucket "n-th first-parent ancestor" falls into.
The terms might be too technical, however my understanding was that
HEAD^n takes <n> steps along a breadth-first traversal of the commit
tree rooted at HEAD, while HEAD~n uses a depth-first traversal.
A better form for the description might come from that formulation of
the process, rather than the 'generational' formulation.
Regards,
Andrew Ardill
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