Subject: Re: [PATCH v4 01/14] trace2: Documentation/technical/api-trace2.txt

From: SZEDER Gábor <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2019 15:11:27 +0100

On Wed, Jan 30, 2019 at 12:56:21PM -0800, Jeff Hostetler via GitGitGadget wrote:
> From: Jeff Hostetler <[email-masked]>

> diff --git a/Documentation/technical/api-trace2.txt b/Documentation/technical/api-trace2.txt

> +== Public API

> +=== Command Detail Messages
> +
> +These are concerned with describing the specific Git command
> +after the command line, config, and environment are inspected.
> +
> +`void trace2_cmd_verb(const char *command_verb)`::
> +
> +	Emits a "cmd_verb" message with the canonical name of
> +	(usually) builtin command, for example "status" or "checkout".
> +
> +`void trace2_cmd_subverb(const char *command_subverb)`::
> +
> +	Emits a "cmd_subverb" message with a qualifier name to further
> +	describe the current git command.

OK, so now we know what is meant by 'verb' and 'subverb'.

Alas, this explanation also clearly shows that the word 'verb' is a
poor fit for what it tries to convey, and 'subverb' is even worse.

Now, I have already noticed that contributors with @microsoft.com
email addresses for some reason tend to be fond of the word 'verb' ;),
and try to use it instead of perfectly adequate and well-established
Git terminology, see e.g. the early versions of the multi-pack-index
patch series:

  https://public-inbox.org/git/[email-masked]/

Those commit messages and documentations were improved after all
occurrances of the word "verb" got replaced by the established Git
terms.

I'm pretty sure that this patch series would vastly benefit from
eliminating all "verb"s (and "subverb"s!) in the code, docs and commit
messages as well.