Re: What's so special about objects/17/ ?

[Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>]

Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com> writes:

> On Sun, Oct 7, 2018 at 1:07 PM Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>>
>> Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:
>
>> > ...
>> > by general public and I do not have to explain the choice to the
>> > general public ;-)
>>
>> One thing that is more important than "why not 00 but 17?" to answer
>> is why a hardcoded number rather than a runtime random.  It is for
>> repeatability.
>
> Let's talk about repeatability vs statistics for a second. ;-)

Oh, I think I misled you by saying "more important".  

I didn't mean that it is more important to stick to the "use
hardcoded value" design decision than sticking to "use 17".  I've
made sure that everybody would understnd choosing any arbitrary byte
value other than "17" does not make the resulting Git any better nor
worse.  But discussing the design decision to use hardcoded value is
"more important", as that affects the balance between the end-user
experience and debuggability, and I tried to help those who do not
know the history by giving the fact that choice was made for the
latter and not for other hidden reasons, that those who would
propose to change the system may have to keep in mind.

Sorry if you mistook it as if I were saying that it is important to
keep the design to use a hardcoded byte value.  That wasn't what the
message was about.