Hi Philip, On Fri, 15 Sep 2017, Philip Oakley wrote: > From: "Johannes Schindelin" <Johannes.Schindelin@xxxxxx> > > > In light of such experiences, I have to admit that the notion that the > > rename detection can always be improved in hindsight puts quite a bit of > > insult to injury for those developers who are bitten by it. > > Your list made me think that the hints should be directed toward what may be > considered existing solutions for those specific awkward cases. > > So the hints could be (by type): > - template;licence;boiler-plate;standard;reference :: copy > - word-rename > - regex for word substitution changes (e.g. which chars are within 'Word-_0`) > - regex for white-space changes (i.e. which chars are considered whitespace.) > - move-dir path/glob spec > - move-file path/glob spec > (maybe list each 'group' of moves, so that once found the rest of the rename > detection follows the group.) > > Once the particular hint is detected (path qualified) then the clue/hint is > used to assist in parsing the files to simplify the comparison task and locate > common lines, or common word patterns. > > The first example is just a set of alternate terms folk use for the new > duplicate file file case. > > The second is a hint that there has been a number of fairly global name > changes in the files. so not only do a word diff but detect & sumarise those > global changes. (your class move example) > > The third is the more simple global word changes, based on a limited char set > for a 'word' token list. > The fourth is where we are focussed on the white space part (complementing the > word token viewpoint) > > The move hints are lists of path specs that each have distinctly moved. > > It may be possible to order the hints as well, so that the detections work in > the right order, giving the heuristics a better chance! I think my point was: no matter how likely we thought any heuristic rename detection can be perfected over time, history proved that suspicion incorrect. Therefore, it would be good to have a way to tell Git about renames explicitly so that it does not even need to use its heuristics. Ciao, Dscho
