Re: What's in git.git (stable)

On Thursday 2006 December 14 00:22, Johannes Schindelin wrote:

quoted

 * git-revert should be called git-invert.  It doesn't remove a change
   from history, it simply applies another commit that does the
   opposite of whatever commit you are "revert"ing.  That's an inversion.

No. An inversion is the _opposite_. Not an undo.

That's what I'm saying, we are applying the opposite of the given commit - 
that commit is being inverted and applied again.  It most certainly isn't an 
undo, because the original commit still exists.  It's not a reversion 
because "reversion" is to regress to a previous time or state.  In that sense 
git-revert is not doing what it says on the tin.  A revert would be to remove 
all the revisions from now until the specified commit - i.e. what git-reset 
now does.

(Note: I don't think git-reset should be renamed, as it's possible to use 
git-reset to move a branch forward as well as backward).

Besides, The fact that revert _adds_ to history is a nice way to
document that you reverted that change. And you can even explain in the
commit message, why you did it.

I'm not disputing that the /operation/ is useful, I'm arguing that it is 
incorrectly named.

IMHO it is better for a newbie to see that _something_ is happening. A

I'm not arguing that we should show nothing; I'm arguing that the something we 
do show should be more clear than what is now shown.  The choice is 
therefore "show something confusing" or "show something clear".

newbie cannot, and does not want to, understand exactly what is going on.

"newbie" doesn't mean "idiot".  Everybody wants to understand what is going 
on.

So, think of it as our response to Windows' non-progress-bar: when you
start up Windows, there is a progress-bar, except that it does not show
progress, but a Knight Rider like movement, only indicating that it does
something.

Given the choice between nothing and a non-progress "doing something" bar, I 
would of course pick the "doing something" bar.  However, given the choice 
between a "doing something" bar and a progress bar, I'd rather have the 
progress bar.


Andy
-- 
Dr Andy Parkins, M Eng (hons), MIEE