From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Rob Barrett Subject: Usability question Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:01:00 +1000 Message-ID: <513ca40e0909170301s2b09184akb27acde76975c09b@mail.gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 To: git@vger.kernel.org X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Thu Sep 17 12:01:15 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.176.167]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1MoDnc-0000jv-E8 for gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org; Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:01:12 +0200 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751190AbZIQKA6 (ORCPT ); Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:00:58 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751132AbZIQKA5 (ORCPT ); Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:00:57 -0400 Received: from mail-yx0-f182.google.com ([209.85.210.182]:37568 "EHLO mail-yx0-f182.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750994AbZIQKA4 (ORCPT ); Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:00:56 -0400 Received: by yxe12 with SMTP id 12so351346yxe.1 for ; Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:01:00 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:sender:received:date :x-google-sender-auth:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; bh=dwOaSPNDJxxELv+ZyEd4APVV7h7PkKUjLArfpjNul0Q=; b=ejt7FaUKdxumcD8Xo/Sun+uje7qUDbh3CkWKkdaAxvT9nt+Mo44ApKTkYzh1TK3UKG YYmpysWvBqjOXhsNCRGWT6Kd2c+wkP+ITKhWwmvJ5mzbvA9MUEpMbvTD6GqvGY1YnJQ9 cdn4hfZwIl/Bsw8S0yUh113vhx+UEvEMzl1H4= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:sender:date:x-google-sender-auth:message-id:subject :from:to:content-type; b=UFxPoUfiVZNgZYaiMe8NSzMat6I6naNtyrMNMZtZ/0FNQ9hwIf3Tp2unRKfe2tmvAF 8zC8/K0QBFDtIkRU8RCRkkEbkRlJYIMd/gFFN+QTgPIto3PVriRciRztn5PoFdcmWIR3 oJTlX0yVEcpvghH3NSRFam2SpTmPeaIotmYH8= Received: by 10.150.81.5 with SMTP id e5mr794600ybb.146.1253181660509; Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:01:00 -0700 (PDT) X-Google-Sender-Auth: 37173707ad711bea Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: When starting with git people almost always ask some variant of "how do I know whether this option should be prefixed with dashes or not?" i.e. git reset --hard vs. git stash save --patch, which coupled with other path, sha and treeish args make things a bit more confusing. Not sure if this has been discussed before? If it has point me at the discussion and I'll go look at it -- no need to read further. And people stop asking the question after they get used to git - but that's not the same as being usable. Out of 60+ commands, most take the form git [--option] and a few take the form git subsubcommand [--option] (a quick scan gives: bisect,bundle,reflog,remote,stash) My questions: 1. What is the distinction that makes the 10% special enough to get non-prefixed options? 2. Is it worthwhile? Wouldn't it be better if to shoot for more consistency / less complexity? Rob