Subject: Re: Patch Series v3 for "use the $( ... ) construct for command substitution"

From: Jonathan Nieder <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2014 10:29:46 -0700

Hi,

Elia Pinto wrote:

> This patch series contain the
>
>  use the $( ... ) construct for command substitution
>
> patches not already merged in ep/shell-command-substitution
> in the mantainer repository.

Thanks for working on this.  The $() form is less error-prone
than ``, so in that sense it can be worthwhile.

[...]
> Elia Pinto (140):

I admit I'm not excited to review these at all.

I wonder if it's possible to make the series easier to review.  For
example:

 * patch 0 makes preparatory changes to line wrapping or to avoid
   using `` some places to make an automatic transformation easier
 * patch 1 introduces a script to transform `` expressions to $()
   expressions
 * patch 2 just runs that script

If the script is "obviously correct" enough then there is no need
to manually go through 140 files after that point.

If the only way to get this done is to actually manually review those
140 files, I just don't think it's worth it.  The `` construct is not
*that* bad.  Another possible direction could be to add a tool to make
sure git doesn't get any new uses of ``, to let the changes flow in at
a manageable rate without too many cases of "one step forward, one
step back".

Hope that helps,
Jonathan