Jacob Keller <jacob.keller@xxxxxxxxx> writes: >> What's wrong with simply using 'HEAD' for scripting? > > When you want to display the current branch to the user, e.g. when > scripting a shell prompt or similar use Wait. Even if a hypothetical version of Git understood @@ as "the current branch", how would you use that notation, instead of HEAD, to decide what to "display the current branch to the user"? You obviously will not be doing echo @@ You would be doing something around "git symbolic-ref" at the very least, and wouldn't you be feeding HEAD to that symbolic-ref anyway while doing so?