Re: [PATCH] git-gui: give more advice when detaching HEAD

On 02/15/2011 08:16 PM, Heiko Voigt wrote:

Hi,

On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 01:39:03AM -0500, Jeff King wrote:

quoted

On Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 01:31:52PM +0100, Heiko Voigt wrote:

quoted

On Sat, Feb 12, 2011 at 02:05:38AM -0500, Jeff King wrote:

quoted

  1. Give some indication or warning during commit that you're in a
     detached state. The CLI template says "You are not on any branch"
     when editing the commit message, and mentions "detached HEAD" as
     the branch in the post-commit summary. As far as I can tell,
     git-gui says nothing at all.

How about something like this:
[...]
Subject: [PATCH] git-gui: warn when trying to commit on a detached head

The commandline is already warning when checking out a detached head.
Since the only thing thats potentially dangerous is to create commits
on a detached head lets warn in case the user is about to do that.

It seems a little heavy-handed to have a dialog pop up for each commit.
It's not actually dangerous to create a commit on a detached HEAD; it's
just dangerous to _leave_ without referencing your new commits.

Hmm, how about adding a checkbox:

  [ ] Do not ask again

In my experience anything other than a popup will be overseen so I would
suggest doing it at least once to prepare the user for the possible
consequences.

That would be useful. However, there is only so much space in a dialog
box (and only so much users will read in one), so to make sure users
understand what is going on (and perhaps advocate some self-learning)
there should be a link to more information.

2c,
-- 
Victor