Re: [PATCH] git-cherry.txt: Change symbol marks in graph.

Jakub Narebski [off-list ref] writes:

Jari Aalto [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

From: Jari Aalto <redacted>

The common commit were marked with a minus sign (-), but that is
usually interpreted as something less or substracted. Use natural
equal sign (=). Commits that are not in upstream were marked with plus
sign (+) but a question mark (?) is visually a litle more striking
(erect) in context where all other signs are "flat". It also helps
visually impared to see difference between (* ... ?) as opposed to
similar signs (* ... +).

Reading comprehension FAIL.  The graph in question uses '+' and '-' because
that is what 'git cherry' *output( uses ('+' included, '-' excluded).  They
are very natural in git-cherry output (diff-like).

Well, cherry's output is not "diff like".  '+' is what you need to keep,
as opposed to '-' that marks a commit that needs to be dropped from your
side.  If it were "diff like", '+' would have been spelled with a single '
', but then commits on the other side you do not have need be included
with '+' mark.  However, 'git cherry' is not trying to produce a diff
between branches; it does not matter what extra stuff the other side
contains.

I however do agree with your conclusion; '=' is not "natural" in the
context of 'git cherry' at all.  "You need to drop this" comes more
natural with '-'.

And obviously, the illustration in the documentation uses the same +/-
that appear in the program's output.

So any change along the line of Jari's patch would be a dis-improvement.