From: Thomas Rast <trast@inf.ethz.ch>
To: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Cc: Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch>, <git@vger.kernel.org>,
Michal Privoznik <mprivozn@redhat.com>, Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 2/2] Document the --histogram diff option
Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 21:42:50 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <87fwdl1mwl.fsf@thomas.inf.ethz.ch> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <7vd38psdt4.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org> (Junio C. Hamano's message of "Tue, 06 Mar 2012 11:57:11 -0800")
Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:
> Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch> writes:
>
>> Signed-off-by: Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch>
>> ---
>>
>> This is only the minimal update. I think in the long run, we should
>> add a note saying why we support all of them. But off hand I didn't
>> have any substantial evidence in favour of patience that could be used
>> as an argument.
>
> Isn't the main argument made by proponents of patience diff is more
> readable output, and not performance? That line of argument relies
> on a fairly subjective test "which one is easier to read?", so it is
> hard to come up with a substantial evidence, unless somebody invests
> in A/B test.
Well, I was just too lazy to look up what I dimly remembered people had
posted at some point: examples where patience beats Myers for
readability. E.g.,
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/104316
I don't think you need a blind test to justify that the patience result
is more readable. So I think in the long run, the docs should say
something like:
--diff-algorithm={histogram|myers|minimal|patience}::
Choose a diff algorithm. The variants are as follows:
+
--
histogram::
This is the fastest algorithm, and thus the default.
myers::
The classical Myers diff algorithm. <state a reason why myers
would be useful>
minimal::
Like 'myers', but spend extra time making sure that the diff
is the shortest possible for the set of changes performed.
patience::
The patience diff algorithm, which first matches unique lines
with each other. This sometimes results in more readable (if
longer) patches than the other algorithms.
--
Or whatever -- magic is required to have a nested list in asciidoc.
I can't be bothered to twiddle with that right now.
--
Thomas Rast
trast@{inf,student}.ethz.ch
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2012-03-06 20:43 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 23+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2012-03-06 10:59 [PATCH] config: Introduce --patience config variable Michal Privoznik
2012-03-06 11:49 ` Jeff King
2012-03-06 13:01 ` Thomas Rast
2012-03-06 13:15 ` [PATCH 1/2] perf: compare diff algorithms Thomas Rast
2012-03-06 13:15 ` [PATCH 2/2] Document the --histogram diff option Thomas Rast
2012-03-06 19:57 ` Junio C Hamano
2012-03-06 20:42 ` Thomas Rast [this message]
2012-03-06 19:52 ` [PATCH 1/2] perf: compare diff algorithms Junio C Hamano
2012-03-06 21:00 ` Thomas Rast
2012-03-06 21:18 ` Junio C Hamano
2012-03-06 21:41 ` Jakub Narebski
2012-03-07 12:44 ` Thomas Rast
2012-03-07 17:45 ` Junio C Hamano
2012-03-07 18:03 ` Jakub Narebski
2012-03-07 18:19 ` Junio C Hamano
2012-03-10 7:13 ` René Scharfe
2012-03-06 13:30 ` [PATCH] config: Introduce --patience config variable Jeff King
2012-03-06 13:32 ` Michal Privoznik
2012-03-06 13:38 ` Matthieu Moy
2012-03-06 14:09 ` Jeff King
2012-03-07 2:57 ` Junio C Hamano
2012-03-07 11:47 ` Jeff King
2012-03-07 17:24 ` Junio C Hamano
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