Re: [RFC] "needs update" considered harmful

["Jay Soffian" <jaysoffian@gmail.com>]

On Sun, Jul 20, 2008 at 3:48 AM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
> The previous two variants both aim to reword the somewhat unpopular "needs
> update" message to easier "locally modified".

As a git beginner I would still be a confused. I think git beginners
need to understand three concepts very early:

- committed changes
- staged changes
- unstaged changes

I think saying "unstaged changes" instead of "locally modified" would
be consistent with the git add and rm man pages and less confusing.

On a related note, I don't understand the need for two different messages here:

$ echo stuff >> foo
$ git co master
error: You have local changes to 'foo'; cannot switch branches.
$ git add foo
$ git co master
error: Entry 'foo' would be overwritten by merge. Cannot merge.

A single message "You have uncommitted changes to 'foo'; cannot switch
branches." would suffice, no?

$0.02.

j.