Re: What's cooking in git.git (Dec 2010, #01; Sat, 4)

Miles Bader [off-list ref] writes:

it's is normal and good that option names are sometimes revisited and
improved -- nothing is perfect on the first try.  By keeping the old
option around as a deprecated alias, we avoid compatibility issues.

The problem is that the old name isn't kept as a _deprecated_ alias,
but just as an alias:

--- a/Documentation/diff-options.txt
+++ b/Documentation/diff-options.txt

@@ -251,6 +251,7 @@ endif::git-log[]
        If `n` is specified, it has the same meaning as for `-M<n>`.
 
 --find-copies-harder::
+--detect-copies-harder::
        For performance reasons, by default, `-C` option finds copies only
        if the original file of the copy was modified in the same
        changeset.  This flag makes the command

I'd rather have stg like

---find-copies-harder::
+--detect-copies-harder::
...
+--find-copies-harder::
+	Deprecated alias for --detect-copies-harder.
+

even if the old alias is kept forever. It's good to let old-timers use
the old name, but we shouldn't confuse new users with two names
without a hint on which one they're supposed to use. Otherwise, the
addition of an alias doesn't really have any benefit for anyone.

-- 
Matthieu Moy
http://www-verimag.imag.fr/~moy/