Re: [RFC PATCH] show decorations at the end of the line

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Sun, Feb 19, 2017 at 03:03:21PM -0800, Jacob Keller wrote:

> >> I just got bitten by a fallout.  I have
> >>
> >>     $ git recent --help
> >>     `git recent' is aliased to `log --oneline --branches --no-merges \
> >>          --source --since=3.weeks'
> >>
> >> but now the branch names are shown at the end, which defeats the
> >> whole point of the alias.
> >
> > Yes, your situation actually wants those decorations as primary
> > things, so having them at the end is indeed pointless.
> >
> > So I think we should just discard that patch of mine.
> >
> >                  Linus
> 
> I would think that in general putting them at the end makes more
> sense, but we should have the ability to use them in format specifiers
> so that users are free to customize it exactly how they want. That is,
> I agree with the reasoning presented in the original patch, but think
> Junio's case can be solved by strengthening the custom formats.

I think there are two potential patches:

  1. Add a custom-format placeholder for the --source value.
     This is an obvious improvement that doesn't hurt anyone.

  2. Switch --decorate to the end by default, but _not_ --source.

     This use case _could_ be served already by using a custom format
     with "%d". So it's really just a matter of having better-looking
     default.

     It might hurt somebody's script, but for the reasons discussed
     earlier in the thread, people are unlikely to be parsing it (it's
     more likely somebody would just complain because they think the
     decoration-first behavior is prettier).

-Peff