Junio C Hamano a écrit :
That made us allowing the users to type "git pull" and "git fetch" without parameters. This is generally a good thing: shorter to type for doing common things is always good, as long as the user knows what he is doing. But at the same time, this allowed docs and cheat-sheets that mention only the form without parameters and not the normative "repository refspec" form. This dumbed down the users not understand that in that context fetch (and pull, which is a fetch followed by a merge) is always happening against a single branch of single remote repository, the way to name remote repository and its branch(es) is to give them as separate parameters, and their not typing the pair explicitly is a mere convenience feature. This particular aspect of the shorthand is actually very bad. It makes the mental model fuzzy, and hiding important rules of how the world works from new people would lead them to unnecessary confusion. In short, we made it harder for the new people to "get" it.
A possible way it to, by default, make git print the full form of the command when a short form is used. So the user see the concept without having to read the documentation and learn it gradually. I personally like tools that act this way. It permit to make a basic and easy tutorial with short commands that let know the general concept and show the full potential of the tool.
A "short form" flag in a user (not repository) configuration file should allow to suppress the long form printout for the comfort of the users that don't want it.
-- Jean-Christian de Rivaz -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
