Thread (2 messages) 2 messages, 2 authors, 7d ago

inconsistent order of --diff-algorithm variants in man pages

From: Vincent Lefevre <hidden>
Date: 2026-06-08 11:26:58

In Documentation/diff-algorithm-option.adoc, which is used by the
git-blame(1) and git-diff(1) man pages:

`--diff-algorithm=(patience|minimal|histogram|myers)`::
        Choose a diff algorithm. The variants are as follows:
+
--
   `default`;;
   `myers`;;
        The basic greedy diff algorithm. Currently, this is the default.
   `minimal`;;
        Spend extra time to make sure the smallest possible diff is
        produced.
   `patience`;;
        Use "patience diff" algorithm when generating patches.
   `histogram`;;
        This algorithm extends the patience algorithm to "support
        low-occurrence common elements".
--

I think that using the same order in the --diff-algorithm line and
in the description that follows would be better, i.e.

  --diff-algorithm=(myers|minimal|patience|histogram)

FYI, the text was added in 07924d4d50e5304fb53eb60aaba8aef31d4c4e5e
in 2013, but without any explanation on this difference.

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre [off-list ref] - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <https://www.vinc17.net/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / Pascaline project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)
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