On Sat, Jun 02, 2018 at 08:05:22AM +0900, Junio C Hamano wrote: > > This has been deprecated since 2011. Maybe it's time to finally get rid > > of it. > > Sure, but is it worth the transition noise? > > The way we lightly utter the word "deprecated" around here probably > does not align well with the way how end-users perceive the word. > Just marking something deprecated in a corner of the documentation > set, without actively making an effort to wean the existing users > off, while happily accepting the existing "deprecated" practice, is > what we've done. > > In those repositories people have with "[foo.bar] key" syntax that > were created before or after 2011, we first should start issuing a > "that syntax will no longer be valid---I'll update it for you if you > want (y/n)?" warning and keep it for a release or three before > finally removing the "feature". Yeah, sorry to be unclear: I meant that we should actually start moving forward on the removal, and I agree that the first step is issuing a warning. It may not be worth the transition noise. For the most part historical oddities like these aren't hurting anybody. On the other hand, people read the documentation and go "huh?". These kinds of vestigial options and special cases can add up to clutter the explanations. So I dunno. -Peff