Re: [PATCH] diffcore-pickaxe doc: document -S and -G properly

Ramkumar Ramachandra [off-list ref] writes:

Junio C Hamano wrote:

quoted

Any time you say "This means that", "More precisely", etc. please
check if you can rewrite it to lose everything before them (i.e. a
vague sentence that needs to be clarified may not have to be there
at all).

Right.  I thought both are necessary in this case: the first sentence
gives easy information to a first-timer.  For someone who has played
with it a bit, and wants to know more: the second line.

quoted

quoted

++
+It is often useful when you're looking for an exact string (like a
+function prototype), and want to know the history of that string since
+it first came into being.

I think you should remind that the most useful case (and indeed the
intended one) is for "an exact string" to be a multi-line "block of
text".  People often get a (wrong) impression from the word "string"
that it is meant to be used with a single-liner.

Yes, I've been meaning to discuss that.  I've been having some trouble
with multi-line strings: zsh doesn't insert a TAB in the next line.
The workaround I have is to write a shell script and execute that.
How do you do it?

I do not use zsh but with bash+readline the old tradition lnext can
be used (see "stty -a" output and it typically is set to ^V), i.e.
\C-v followed by \C-i should give you a literal HT.

Junio C Hamano wrote:

I do not use zsh but with bash+readline the old tradition lnext can
be used (see "stty -a" output and it typically is set to ^V), i.e.
\C-v followed by \C-i should give you a literal HT.

Just looked it up: zsh has quoted-insert (^V) after which I can TAB.
Still doesn't solve my problem though: I don't type out structs; I
paste them the X clipboard (Emacs).  And that doesn't work either on
bash or zsh.

What can we do to improve the interface?

Ramkumar Ramachandra wrote:

What can we do to improve the interface?

Write a better shell?  Teach "git gui blame" to blame on arbitrary
regions instead of single lines?  I'm not sure what you're asking,
mostly because I'm not sure who "we" is.

Jonathan Nieder wrote:

Write a better shell?

Shell, editor.  Both are very hard problems, and the successful
projects last many years (emacs, zsh are over 20 years old).

Teach "git gui blame" to blame on arbitrary
regions instead of single lines?

Or in my case: get magit to do log -S.

Should we mention in the -S documentation that temporary shell script
is the way to get multi-line input?

Ramkumar Ramachandra wrote:

Should we mention in the -S documentation that temporary shell script
is the way to get multi-line input?

No, because for almost everyone it isn't.

An example in the EXAMPLES section including an aside that you might
have to hit ^V to enter a tab could be useful, though.

On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 2:57 PM, Ramkumar Ramachandra
[off-list ref] wrote:

Junio C Hamano wrote:

quoted

I do not use zsh but with bash+readline the old tradition lnext can
be used (see "stty -a" output and it typically is set to ^V), i.e.
\C-v followed by \C-i should give you a literal HT.

Just looked it up: zsh has quoted-insert (^V) after which I can TAB.
Still doesn't solve my problem though: I don't type out structs; I
paste them the X clipboard (Emacs).  And that doesn't work either on
bash or zsh.

What can we do to improve the interface?

Don't use tabs in your code?

P