From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
To: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>
Cc: Git Mailing List <git@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] replace "parameters" by "arguments" in error messages
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2021 00:28:43 -0800 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <xmqqk0qz4284.fsf@gitster.g> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <40b2fedc-fdde-1fc0-ef98-86d8ea638193@kdbg.org> (Johannes Sixt's message of "Tue, 23 Feb 2021 08:38:52 +0100")
Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org> writes:
> When an error message informs the user about an incorrect command
> invocation, it should refer to "arguments", not "parameters".
>
> Signed-off-by: Johannes Sixt <j6t@kdbg.org>
> ---
> Recently, I was greated by an accidental `git tag` invocation:
>
> $ git tag one two three
> fatal: too many params
>
> This is bad in two regards: (1) There's a techie-speak abbreviation
> in a user-visible text, (2) and it is wrong terminology to refer to
> "parameters" when "arguments" would be correct.
>
> Then I looked at every single occurrence of "parameter" in Documentation/
> and half-way through the rest and wanted to correct all incorrect uses,
> but things are by far not as clear-cut as I hoped.
>
> So, I stopped here and fixed the one pain point that triggered the voyage,
> which I hope is not too controversal.
>
> bisect.c | 2 +-
> builtin/notes.c | 20 ++++++++++----------
> builtin/stash.c | 2 +-
> builtin/tag.c | 2 +-
> t/t3301-notes.sh | 6 +++---
> t/t6030-bisect-porcelain.sh | 4 ++--
> 6 files changed, 18 insertions(+), 18 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/bisect.c b/bisect.c
> index 75ea0eb57f..ae48d19acf 100644
> --- a/bisect.c
> +++ b/bisect.c
> @@ -1064,7 +1064,7 @@ enum bisect_error bisect_next
> if (!all) {
> fprintf(stderr, _("No testable commit found.\n"
> - "Maybe you started with bad path parameters?\n"));
> + "Maybe you started with bad path arguments?\n"));
> return BISECT_NO_TESTABLE_COMMIT;
> }
> diff --git a/builtin/notes.c b/builtin/notes.c
The above hunk is curious for a few reasons.
- The hunk header claims that both the preimage and the postimage
are 7 lines long, but they only have 5 (2 precontext, 1 change
and 2 postcontext) lines.
- There are spaces before tab on a few context lines that do not
exist in the patch target.
Ahh, format=flawed, that is.
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2021-02-23 8:30 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 3+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2021-02-23 7:38 [PATCH] replace "parameters" by "arguments" in error messages Johannes Sixt
2021-02-23 8:28 ` Junio C Hamano [this message]
2021-02-23 21:11 ` Johannes Sixt
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