Subject: Re: Why are submodules not automatically handled by default or at least configurable to do so?

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2015 12:53:28 -0700

Stefan Beller <[email-masked]> writes:

> IIUC at the time submodules were invented, there was need for lots of
> code to be written.
> Each command needed new code to deal with submodules. As there was not
> enough people/time
> to do it properly, the "do nothing" was the safest action which could
> be added fast.

That is quite different from how I remember.  Soon after Linus and I
added the Gitlink in early Apr 20007, an early subproject/gitlink
(thought) experiment was started with help from folks like Steven
Grimm, Jan Hudec, Petr Baudis, Alex Riesen etc.  The first principle
of the design throughout that era was "we admit that we do not know
all the use cases, so let's start small and solid and make sure that
small-and-solid thing can later be enhanced as people discover the
way how they want to work" (you can see me expressing that sentiment
in $gmane/48287, for example).

So it wasn't "not enough people to do it properly" at all.  It was
"we admit that we do not know what is proper, so we defer to actual
users to define what is proper for them".