Subject: Re: [PATCH 2/2] format-patch: introduce format.defaultTo

From: Jonathan Nieder <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2014 10:35:48 -0800

Hi,

Ramkumar Ramachandra wrote:

>                      a plain
>
>   $ git format-patch -o outgoing
>
> is a no-op on a topic branch, and the user has to remember to specify
> 'master' explicitly everytime. Save the user the extra keystrokes by
> introducing format.defaultTo

Not excited.  Two reasons:

 1. Most config settings are in noun form: e.g.,
    "[remote] pushDefault = foo".  That makes their names easy to guess
    and makes them easy to talk about: I set the default remote for
    pushing by changing the remote.pushdefault setting.

    '[url "<foo>"] insteadOf' is an exception to that and a bit of an
    aberration.

    This new '[format] defaultTo' repeats the same end-with-a-preposition
    mistake, while I think it would be better to learn from it.

 2. Wouldn't a more natural default be @{u}..HEAD instead of relying on
    the user to do the make-work of keeping a local branch that tracks
    master up to date?

Hope that helps,
Jonathan