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What was the point the author tried to get across with the first paragraph bringing up the large whitespace commit? It didn't add anything to the story, it just
by daneel_w 5y ago
What was the point the author tried to get across with the first paragraph bringing up the large whitespace commit? It didn't add anything to the story, it just ended up as an initial distraction.
Also, is he implying that thousands of commits (one for each file) would be a better way to convert that large code base? Why not solve this problem with the right tools, such as ignorerevs?
- ghshephard 5y agoThe whitespace commit breaks cherrypicking. What seemed like a harmless change could cripple automated backports of fixes. I thought it was the entire crux of his story.
- daneel_w 5y agoYes but the whitespace commit - a change that unavoidably affects almost every single line of its target - is possibly the worst example one can come up with.
- looperhacks 5y agoI believe his point is that the commit shouldn't have happened at all, keeping the old style instead (or maybe applying the new style together with other changes ... Yuck. Don't do this) It kinda serves as a hook to describe why these changes are bad. I think it's a good example for the rest of the article.
- daneel_w 5y agoI feel it's a very contrived example because there's no compromise to how such a change is to be done. If there's an argument to make it's about making the decision to switch whitespace tactic at all.