On 9/26/2022 4:08 PM, Victoria Dye wrote: > Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget wrote: >> +=== Purpose of sparse-checkouts === >> + >> +sparse-checkouts exist to allow users to work with a subset of their >> +files. >> + >> +The idea is simple enough, but there are two different high-level >> +usecases which affect how some Git subcommands should behave. Further, >> +even if we only considered one of those usecases, sparse-checkouts >> +modify different subcommands in over a half dozen different ways. Let's >> +start by considering the high level usecases in this section: >> + >> + A) Users are _only_ interested in the sparse portion of the repo >> + >> + B) Users want a sparse working tree, but are working in a larger whole > > Both of these use cases make sense to me! Two thoughts/comments: > > 1. This could be a "me" problem, but I regularly struggle with "sparse" > having different meanings in similar contexts. For example, a "sparse > directory" is one *with* 'SKIP_WORKTREE' applied vs. "the sparse portion > of the repo" here refers to the files *without* 'SKIP_WORKTREE' applied. > A quick note/section outlining some standard terminology would be > immensely helpful. This difference is absolutely my fault, and maybe we should consider fixing this problem by renaming sparse directories something else. Perhaps "skipped directory" would be a better name? Thanks, -Stolee
