Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 3/3] fetch: reduce duplicate in ref update status lines

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2016 13:53:40 -0700

Marc Branchaud <[email-masked]> writes:

>>>   * [new branch]      2nd-index -> pclouds/2nd-index
>>>   * [new branch]      some-kind-of-long-ref-name
>>>                                 -> pclouds/some-kind-of-long-ref-name
>>>   * [new branch]      3nd-index -> pclouds/3nd-index
> ...
> I think aligning it with the -> on the other lines makes the most
> aesthetic sense.
>
> Are you worried that the right-hand-side ref might still wrap?

Not really.

Given that we reserve some fixed screen real estate on the left hand
side for the sign and explanation (like [new branch]) and 4 columns
in the middle for " -> ", we have around 80-25=55 columns to work
with to fit "2nd-index" and such twice plus "pclouds/" once.
Assuming that remote names are not overly long (say, around 10
columns), that leaves about 20-25 columns for the branch name
proper.

By punting on the effort to find a readable format that does not
repeat the same info twice, we are sending a signal to the users
that they cannot use a meaningful sentence as the name of a branch
name; they need to stay within a relatively short (i.e. 1/4 of a
line width) branch name, to avoid triggering this multi-line
behaviour.

The same 55 columns minus remote name, e.g. around 40 columns, could
have been used to express the branch name once, if we managed to
find a non-redundant format.

That is what bothers me somewhat.