Subject: Re: [PATCH v4 0/5] Disable "git status" comment prefix

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 12:13:44 -0700

Matthieu Moy <[email-masked]> writes:

> Compared to v2, this changes essentially:
>
> * The prefix is actually disabled by default in this version. As a
>   consequence, the option is renamed to status.oldStyle.
>
> * Since this is the default, the tests are updated to test the new
>   defaults. In a first patch, I'm setting status.oldStyle=true in test
>   files that require it (to keep the patch short), and the last patch
>   actually updates the test expected results. This was actually useful
>   as I did find (and fix) a few bugs updating the tests:
>
>   - the --columns option was still showing the comment prefix
>
>   - "git commit --dry-run" and failed "git commit" were still
>     displaying comments to stdout.
>
> * The --for-status option is kept as a no-op.

Much nicer.  Will replace and queue.

One caveat, though.  The name "oldStyle" will become problematic,
when we want to remove some wart in the output format long after
this "no comment prefix by default" series lands.  Some people may
expect setting oldStyle=true would give output from 1.8.4 era, while
some others would expect that it would give output from 1.8.5 era
that does not have comment prefix but still has that wart we will
remove down the line.

It is a common mistake to make to think that one is making the final
change to the code and the result of that final change will stay the
latest forever.  I am sure I've done that for a few times and later
regretted them.