Subject: Re: [PATCH] git-reset.txt: Use commit~1 notation over commit^

From: Miles Bader <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 02 Dec 2010 22:17:03 +0900

Jari Aalto <[email-masked]> writes:
>> It doesn't matter.  There needs to be a better reason than "Jari doesn't
>> like it."
>
> This has nothing to do with liking. It how infomation is read. When
> information is consistent, it lessens cognitive load.

No, it has to do with your trying to impose your personal tastes.

^ (and ^^, etc) is a simpler and easier concept to deal with, and
sufficient for the vast majority of tasks -- beyond 1 or 2 levels,
it's typically easier to just use an absolute reference cut-and-pasted
from git log output than it is to count commits and get the right
value to use with ~ (and from experience, unless you're careful, it's
very easy to get counts for ~ wrong).  So it's ~ that's the "expert
notation", not ^.

[How do I know?   Because I've _been_ a git beginner, and spent a long
time trying to learn git.]

-Miles

-- 
Discriminate, v.i. To note the particulars in which one person or thing is,
if possible, more objectionable than another.