Re: [GSoC PATCH v9 2/5] repo: add the field references.format

Phillip Wood [off-list ref] writes:

Hi Lucas

On 07/08/2025 16:02, Lucas Seiki Oshiro wrote:

quoted

++
+The returned data is lexicographically sorted by the keys.

What's the reason for this? If I query three keys from a script then
it is much easier to parse the output if I know the keys are going to
appear in the same order that they were on the command line. If the
command re-orders them my script now has to check the value of each
key which results in a bunch of unnecessary string comparisons because
it cannot determine the key from the position in the output. While we
were producing json output there was a need to de-duplicate the keys
when that output format was selected. However, we no-longer produce
json and in any case de-duplication could have been achieved without
sorting the input keys by using a hash table, or, as there is a small
fixed number of keys, an array that records the keys we've already
seen.

Very good.  Thanks.