Re: [PATCH 1/2] Documentation/git-checkout.txt: clarify usage

Andrew Ardill [off-list ref] writes:

Even if the primary purpose of "git checkout <branch>" is to "check
out the branch so that further work is done on that branch", I don't
believe that means it has to be stated first. In fact, I would say
that there are enough other use cases that the language should be
slightly more use-case agnostic in the first situation. For example,
someone might switch to another branch or commit simply to see what
state the tree was in at that point.

I've been deliberately avoiding the term "switch", actually.  I
agree that it may be familiar to people with prior exposure to
subversion, but that is not the primary audience of the manual.

Some people use checkout to
deploy a tag of the working tree onto a production server. The first
example in particular is, I think, a common enough operation that
restricting the opening lines of documentation to talking about
building further work is misleading.

I agree with you that sightseeing use case where you do not intend
to make any commit is also important.  That is exactly why I said
"further work is done on that branch" not "to that branch" in the
message you are responding to.