Subject: Re: [PATCH] t4013: add expected failure for "log --patch --no-patch"

From: Felipe Contreras <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 08 May 2023 19:34:51 -0600

Sergey Organov wrote:
> Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]> writes:

> > When a command does not behave the way one thinks it should, being
> > curious is good.  Reporting it as a potential bug is also good.  But
> > it would help the project more if it was triaged before reporting it
> > as a potential bug, if the reporter is capable of doing so.  Those
> > who encounter behaviour unexpected to them are more numerous than
> > those who can report it as a potential bug (many people are not
> > equipped to write a good bug report), and those who can triage and
> > diagnose a bug report are fewer.  Those who can come up with a
> > solution is even more scarse.
> 
> I'm afraid the solution I'd come up with won't be welcomed.

My solutions are often not welcomed, and yet I still implement them.

It might be a waste of time, but often I've found out that very quickly
after attempting to come up with a solution I realize there's a lot of
detail I was missing initially, so even if the solution is not welcomed,
it helps me to understand the problem space and be more helpful in the
discussion of potential solutions.

So if I were you, I would still attempt to do it, just to gather some
understanding.

Very often I myself realize the solution I initially thought was the
correct one turns out the be completely undoable, and often I need to
attempt more than one.

If I'm content with a solution, I send it to the mailing list,
regardless of the probability of it being merged, because in my view an
unmerged patch still provides value, as it creates a record that might
be referenced in the future.

In fact, quite recently somebody resent a patch of mine that fixes an
obvious regression [1]. So even if the maintainer has not merged my
patch--and thus it could be said my patch was not "welcomed"--the fact
is that it was not welcomed by the maintainer, but it was welcomed by
the community.

I for one welcome any and all attempts to fix git's awful user
interface, regardless of the reception of the maintainer, and the "core
club".

Cheers.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/git/[email-masked]/

-- 
Felipe Contreras