On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 23:44, cte <cestreich@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Using output from the command line utilities as an API has its own set > of problems. For instance, check out some of the difficulties that > gitk and qgit have had to deal with: > http://kerneltrap.org/mailarchive/git/2007/11/2/379067. I beg to differ. If I skimmed the topic correctly, the problems there were not related to having to parse git's output, but due to the fact that '--topo-order' is a post-processing operation, which takes long. Do read the recent discussion between Linus and Roman about that. > Digging into > the git internals and reusing its core functions will always be more > powerful and flexible than parsing command line output. Sure, but is it worth it? What do you need in your GUI that you cannot get from the plumbing? > Of course, it > is not always easy; git wasn't written to be easily compiled into a > library and reused (graceful error handling and memory management are > problematic). But I think the right thing to do is to work towards > making the awesome git internals easier to use for other developers so > great tools can continue to be built on top of git. I do agree with that, libification of git would be really nice. Especially since that'd mean that integrating it into other languages (by means of wrappers), such as Python or Ruby, becomes a lot easier. >> There is, use the plumbing, forward compatibility is 95% assured. With >> the exception of major releases, for which any plumbing >> output/behavior changes will be announced in the changelog, usually >> including an explanation on how to change your code to match. > > 95% assured != correct, IMO :) Why not? Junio has a very good reputation of keeping git backwards compatible. The 95% is of course not an actual figure but an expression meant to indicate "statement is true, minus a few rare case exceptions". >> In short, use the forc-... errr, plumbing ;). >> >> -- >> Cheers, >> >> Sverre Rabbelier >> It's ok to remove text that you do not respond to, including signatures :P. -- Cheers, Sverre Rabbelier -- 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
