Re: [PATCH 7/7] xdiff: make diff3 the default conflictStyle

[Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>]

Jeff King wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 10, 2021 at 08:41:21AM +0200, Johannes Sixt wrote:
> 
> > Am 09.06.21 um 21:28 schrieb Felipe Contreras:
> > > Virtually everyone is using it, and it's one of the first things we
> > > teach newcomers in order to resolve conflicts efficiently.
> > > 
> > > Let's make it the default.
> > 
> > I tested diff3 style the VERY FIRST TIME the other day and was greated
> > with the below. Needless to say that this change is a no-go from my POV.
> > [...]
> 
> I didn't look too deeply at your example, but I suspect it may be
> related to the fact that diff3 does not try to minimize the conflicts as
> much (and then the recursive merge on top of that piles on extra layers
> of confusion).
> 
> There's a lot more discussion in this old thread:
> 
>   https://lore.kernel.org/git/20130306150548.GC15375@pengutronix.de/

Geezus. My patches always end up kicking the hornest nest don't they?

Maybe it would make sense to revive the zdiff3 patch and attempt to make
that the default. That would take a lot of time though, so it wasn't as
easy as just flipping a switch from "merge" to "diff3".

But there is value in attempting to make the default merge.conflictstyle
work for everyone (or last least as many people as possible). It's
shinning a light on issues that are already present now.

For reference--and since gmane links don't work any more--here are the
relevant links for the past discussions:

https://lore.kernel.org/git/20130306150548.GC15375@pengutronix.de/
https://lore.kernel.org/git/alpine.LFD.1.10.0808311021120.12958@nehalem.linux-foundation.org/
https://lore.kernel.org/git/1220056963-2352-5-git-send-email-gitster@pobox.com/

Cheers.

-- 
Felipe Contreras