Subject: Re: [RFC/PATCH] git push usability improvements and default change

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:19:28 -0700

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

>    - Even if the answer to the above question is "no", are there other
>      commands that we currently do not allow a quick shorthand to mean
>      "the default thing", but would benefit from having one?  If so, how
>      good does it look to use '-' as such a short-hand?

I need " for these other commands" before the question mark at the end of
this sentence.

>      In other words, is it safe to establish a precedent to use '-' to
>      denote "the default thing"?  Would we later regret, saying that
>      "'git-frotz command would benefit from a short-hand notation for 'the
>      default thing', but - is already taken -- it means send the output to
>      the stdout"?

I need ", or something like that" before the question mark at the end of
this sentence.

>    - Do we use a short-hand '-' to mean something entirely different in
>      the UI, making this new use of '-' to mean the default confusing?
>
>      I think '-' for checkout means "the previous one", which already
>      answers this question somewhat.

I am wondering if we can handle this by DWIMming the command line
arguments better.  For example, in all of these:

	$ git push HEAD
        $ git push :
        $ git push master

when "HEAD", ":", or "master" can only be refspec, we know that the user
said "I do not bother saying which repository to --- you know what I
mean."  It would be natural to DWIM it to "the default remote" without
even having to use your '-' notation.