Re: [PATCH 0/6] sparse-checkout: make set subsume init

On 12/4/2021 3:00 PM, Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget wrote:

As described at [1], the split of init and set subcommands in
sparse-checkout causes multiple issues:

 * Poor performance (deleting all tracked files, then later restoring many
   and maybe even most of them)
 * Poor UI (multiple progress bars in wrappers that hide both commands under
   1 user-facing command)
 * Loss of ignored files under directories the user wanted to keep

This series fixes this bug by providing a single command to switch to a
sparse-checkout: set. It does so by making set able to do the combined work
of init and set. It keeps init as-is to give folks time to adapt, but marks
it as deprecated.

A quick overview:

 * Patches 1-2: small preparatory refactorings

These were easy to read and obviously improvements. They make the later
work easier, too.

 * Patch 3: the crux of the series

Victoria and I had some thoughts that might improve this patch, but it
is high quality without them.

 * Patches 4-5: documentation modifications (Patch 4 is worth reviewing; it
   marks init as deprecated -- are others okay with that?)
 * Patch 6: trivial modification of git clone --sparse to use git
   sparse-checkout set rather than git sparse-checkout init.

These are good immediate follow-ups. I notice you left out the "--sparse
implies --cone" change, and I think that is wise to leave for an independent
series.

Thanks,
-Stolee