Re: [PATCH v2 6/7] checkout: split into switch-branch and checkout-files

On Wed, Nov 28, 2018 at 7:03 AM Junio C Hamano [off-list ref] wrote:

Nguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy  [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

The good old "git checkout" command is still here and will be until
all (or most of users) are sick of it.

Two comments on the goal (the implementation looked reasonable
assuming the reader agrees with the gaol).

At least to me, the verb "switch" needs two things to switch
between, i.e. "switch A and B", unless it is "switch to X".
Either "switch-to-branch" or simply "switch-to", perhaps?

As I already hinted in my response to Stefan (?) about
checkout-from-tree vs checkout-from-index, a command with multiple
modes of operation is not confusing to people with the right mental
model, and I suspect that having two separate commands for "checking
out a branch" and "checking out paths" that is done by this step
would help users to form the right mental model.

Since the other one is already "checkout-files", maybe this one could
just be "checkout-branch".

So I tend to think
these two are "training wheels", and suspect that once they got it,
nobody will become "sick of" the single "checkout" command that can
be used to do either.  It's just the matter of being aware what can
be done (which requires the right mental model) and how to tell Git
what the user wants it do (two separate commands, operating mode
option, or just the implied command line syntax---once the user
knows what s/he is doing, these do not make that much a difference).

I would hope this becomes better defaults and being used 90% of time.
Even though I know "git checkout" quite well, it still bites me from
time to time. Having the right mental model is one thing. Having to
think a bit every time to write "git checkout" with the right syntax,
and whether you need "--" (that ambiguation problem can still bite you
from time to time), is frankly something I'd rather avoid.
-- 
Duy