Subject: Re: Consistent terminology: cached/staged/index

From: Michael J Gruber <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2011 11:42:05 +0100

Miles Bader venit, vidit, dixit 14.02.2011 08:07:
> On Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 6:59 AM, Johannes Sixt <[email-masked]> wrote:
>> Am 2/14/2011 7:27, schrieb Miles Bader:
>>> "git diff -s"  ? ... since --staged is an alias for --cached :)
>>
>> git config --global alias.diffc "diff --cached"
> 
> "Git should be convenient by default (for commonly used operations)"
> 
> -miles
> 

git diff --ca<TAB>

;)

At least if "by default" includes using the default bash completion by
default.

Short options should really not be "wasted" easily. "-s" named after "to
stage" is really problematic, as outlined in this thread. It's mainly
used (and has been introduced, I think) by "the other git community", so
to say. I feel that sticking to established terminology (esp. that used
in man pages and command messages) is more helpful for newbies. That
does not exclude using new terms for explaining that terminology, of course.

The term "stage" is in git's documentation all over the place - and
denotes the different versions of a blob involved in a merge.
Admittedly, that's something recorded in the index.

Full disclaimer: I have an alias "staged" for "diff --cached" myself...

Michael