GIT uppercase annoying

GIT uppercase annoying

[Miles Bader]

Hi,

The vc-handled-backends entry for git and other new backends are ALL
UPPERCASE, which seems rather at odds with the way I've seen their names
used generally (I know historical entries like CVS and RCS are
uppercase, but they're traditinally _always_ written that way).

It may seem like a minor point, but this name is _constantly_ visible
because it's used for the mode-line display of files under version
control; while visiting files handled by git, in particular, I've found
this quite distracting (whereas I don't notice for files in CVS, becasue
I'm so used to uppercase "CVS").  Git doesn't really stand for anything,
and is most commonly used like a word, not an acronym; I gather the same
is true of systems like Bzr though I have less familiarity with them.

The current "all uppercase" nature of vc-handled-backends seems mostly
like people just copied the casification of the older entries when
adding new ones, but I'd really like to quash this trend and use a less
annoying convention for backends where that is more natural.

Thanks,

-Miles

-- 
Freedom's just another word, for nothing left to lose   --Janis Joplin

Re: GIT uppercase annoying

[Dan Nicolaescu]

Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org> writes:

  > Hi,
  > 
  > The vc-handled-backends entry for git and other new backends are ALL
  > UPPERCASE, which seems rather at odds with the way I've seen their names
  > used generally (I know historical entries like CVS and RCS are
  > uppercase, but they're traditinally _always_ written that way).
  > 
  > It may seem like a minor point, but this name is _constantly_ visible
  > because it's used for the mode-line display of files under version
  > control; while visiting files handled by git, in particular, I've found
  > this quite distracting (whereas I don't notice for files in CVS, becasue
  > I'm so used to uppercase "CVS").  Git doesn't really stand for anything,
  > and is most commonly used like a word, not an acronym; I gather the same
  > is true of systems like Bzr though I have less familiarity with them.
  > 
  > The current "all uppercase" nature of vc-handled-backends seems mostly
  > like people just copied the casification of the older entries when
  > adding new ones, but I'd really like to quash this trend and use a less
  > annoying convention for backends where that is more natural.

FWIW I agree. 
When I checked in vc-hg.el, someone asked for Hg (or hg?) to be
changed to HG...

Re: GIT uppercase annoying

[Miles Bader]

Dan Nicolaescu <dann@ics.uci.edu> writes:
>   > The current "all uppercase" nature of vc-handled-backends seems mostly
>   > like people just copied the casification of the older entries when
>   > adding new ones, but I'd really like to quash this trend and use a less
>   > annoying convention for backends where that is more natural.
>
> FWIW I agree. 
> When I checked in vc-hg.el, someone asked for Hg (or hg?) to be
> changed to HG...

I didn't see that thread; did they give any justification?

Thanks,

-Miles

-- 
"Unless there are slaves to do the ugly, horrible, uninteresting work, culture
and contemplation become almost impossible. Human slavery is wrong, insecure,
and demoralizing.  On mechanical slavery, on the slavery of the machine, the
future of the world depends." -Oscar Wilde, "The Soul of Man Under Socialism"

Re: GIT uppercase annoying

[Dan Nicolaescu]

Miles Bader <miles.bader@necel.com> writes:

  > Dan Nicolaescu <dann@ics.uci.edu> writes:
  > >   > The current "all uppercase" nature of vc-handled-backends seems mostly
  > >   > like people just copied the casification of the older entries when
  > >   > adding new ones, but I'd really like to quash this trend and use a less
  > >   > annoying convention for backends where that is more natural.
  > >
  > > FWIW I agree. 
  > > When I checked in vc-hg.el, someone asked for Hg (or hg?) to be
  > > changed to HG...
  > 
  > I didn't see that thread; did they give any justification?

I checked, it was a private message from Stefan before the file was
checked in. I  remember the conversation right, "asked" was not
the right word to use. He just said that the convention has been to
use all-caps names or capitalized names, and that it would probably be
better to use HG instead of hg. 

       --dan

Re: GIT uppercase annoying

[Miles Bader]

On 8/1/07, Dan Nicolaescu <dann@ics.uci.edu> wrote:
>   > I didn't see that thread; did they give any justification?
>
> I checked, it was a private message from Stefan before the file was
> checked in. I  remember the conversation right, "asked" was not
> the right word to use. He just said that the convention has been to
> use all-caps names or capitalized names, and that it would probably be
> better to use HG instead of hg.

I think the right solution then is to use capitalized names for these
systems (ala "Arch"), not all uppercase -- that would match general
usage better, and at least isn't obviously wrong like all-uppercase.

-Miles

-- 
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.

Re: GIT uppercase annoying

[Stefan Monnier]

> I checked, it was a private message from Stefan before the file was
> checked in. I  remember the conversation right, "asked" was not
> the right word to use. He just said that the convention has been to
> use all-caps names or capitalized names, and that it would probably be
> better to use HG instead of hg.

Indeed, I asked to change "hg" into "HG".  But the main problem was the
all-lower-case nature of "hg", so "Hg" would be fine as well (after all
I chose "Arch" rather than "ARCH" for vc-arch.el, so who am I to argue
otherwise ;-)


        Stefan

Re: GIT uppercase annoying

[Miles Bader]

On 8/1/07, Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote:
> Indeed, I asked to change "hg" into "HG".  But the main problem was the
> all-lower-case nature of "hg", so "Hg" would be fine as well (after all
> I chose "Arch" rather than "ARCH" for vc-arch.el, so who am I to argue
> otherwise ;-)

Ok, I'll change them to Git, Hg, and Bzr (MCVS I guess should remain
all uppercase).

-Miles

-- 
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.