Re: GSOC idea: build in scripts and cleanups

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 09:14:35PM -0500, Jonathan Nieder wrote:

> > I was also thinking if there isn't PERL a better choice in rewriting shell 
> > scripts, due to planed porting (android, etc). Better than C. But I don't know 
> > android and other platform so much, so thats why I'm asking.
> 
> So far (on Windows and various Unixen) it seems that C is much easier
> to work with as far as porting goes.[2]

If I were considering cleaning up and porting add--interactive to C, I
think I would probably start with just porting the "-p" patch loop
first. I think it's the part that most people use, and most callers
don't support a generic "-i" but just the "-p" interface (e.g., you can
do "git add -i" or "git add -p", but only "git checkout -p"). And that
cuts down the size of the task somewhat.

As far as cleanup versus features, I think Thomas would have to comment
on that. He is the one who did the most work on patch-mode, and
therefore the one who most thinks it needs cleaned up. :)

> [1] Android is an odd example because the platform uses Java heavily
> (so JGit might be a better fit for it).  Perhaps the wish for android
> support should have been put on the Eclipse ideas page[2] and a link
> added to git's; I dunno.

Yeah, I'm not sure what an Android port would quite look like. In theory
I could probably build stock git for my rooted N1 using a
cross-compiler. But I can't imagine what I would use it for. A native
app seems like it would be more useful, and that pretty much requires
Java.

-Peff