Subject: Re: What's cooking in git.git (topics)

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 14:41:16 -0700

"Alex Riesen" <[email-masked]> writes:

> On 4/23/07, Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]> wrote:
>> ...
>> That's one of the reasons why only the filter names are assigned
>> to paths using gitattributes mechanism and what action to take
>> when a specific filter name is attached to a path is determined
>> by the config.  Missing filter driver definition in the config
>> is not an error but makes the filter a no-op passthru.
>
> Fragile. What if content is useless without filter?

In that case, the project screwed itself and it is not our
problem anymore ;-).

>> The content filtering is to massage the content into a shape
>> that is more convenient for the platform/filesystem/the user to
>> use.  The keyword here is "more convenient" and not "usable"; in
>
> how can "not usable" be "more convenient"?

I think I worded it incorrectly to be misunderstood, but I
couldn't word them better then, I do not know I can word them
better now.

Something could be 1. unusable, or 2. usable.  Among usable
shapes, there are 2-a. inconvenient but usable and 2-b. very
convenient to use.

What I tried to say was that if you use filtering mechanism to
massage contents that is unusable into usable (i.e. crossing
from 1 to 2), you are already misusing the mechanism (but we do
not prevent you because we are only "giving you a long rope").
The filter is meant to be used to cross from 2-a to 2-b.