Subject: Re: [PATCH] sparse-checkout.txt: new document with sparse-checkout directions

From: Derrick Stolee <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2022 12:42:33 -0400

On 9/26/2022 4:08 PM, Victoria Dye wrote:
> Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget wrote:
>> +=== Purpose of sparse-checkouts ===
>> +
>> +sparse-checkouts exist to allow users to work with a subset of their
>> +files.
>> +
>> +The idea is simple enough, but there are two different high-level
>> +usecases which affect how some Git subcommands should behave.  Further,
>> +even if we only considered one of those usecases, sparse-checkouts
>> +modify different subcommands in over a half dozen different ways.  Let's
>> +start by considering the high level usecases in this section:
>> +
>> +  A) Users are _only_ interested in the sparse portion of the repo
>> +
>> +  B) Users want a sparse working tree, but are working in a larger whole
> 
> Both of these use cases make sense to me! Two thoughts/comments:
> 
> 1. This could be a "me" problem, but I regularly struggle with "sparse"
>    having different meanings in similar contexts. For example, a "sparse
>    directory" is one *with* 'SKIP_WORKTREE' applied vs. "the sparse portion
>    of the repo"  here refers to the files *without* 'SKIP_WORKTREE' applied.
>    A quick note/section outlining some standard terminology would be
>    immensely helpful.

This difference is absolutely my fault, and maybe we should consider
fixing this problem by renaming sparse directories something else.
Perhaps "skipped directory" would be a better name?

Thanks,
-Stolee