diff mbox series

[2/2] RelNotes/2.24.0: fix self-contradictory note

Message ID 0f3aa67e4aafbb7befd37d83a8c0d53a0a186259.1572466878.git.gitgitgadget@gmail.com (mailing list archive)
State New, archived
Headers show
Series 2.24 release note fixups | expand

Commit Message

Linus Arver via GitGitGadget Oct. 30, 2019, 8:21 p.m. UTC
From: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>

As per Wikipedia, "In current technical usage, for one to state that a
feature is deprecated is merely a recommendation against using it."  It
is thus contradictory to claim that something is not "officially
deprecated" and then to immediately state that we are both discouraging
its use and pointing people elsewhere.

Signed-off-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/RelNotes/2.24.0.txt | 7 +++----
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

Comments

Taylor Blau Nov. 2, 2019, 3:32 a.m. UTC | #1
On Wed, Oct 30, 2019 at 08:21:18PM +0000, Elijah Newren via GitGitGadget wrote:
> From: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>
>
> As per Wikipedia, "In current technical usage, for one to state that a
> feature is deprecated is merely a recommendation against using it."  It
> is thus contradictory to claim that something is not "officially
> deprecated" and then to immediately state that we are both discouraging
> its use and pointing people elsewhere.
>
> Signed-off-by: Elijah Newren <newren@gmail.com>
> ---
>  Documentation/RelNotes/2.24.0.txt | 7 +++----
>  1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/Documentation/RelNotes/2.24.0.txt b/Documentation/RelNotes/2.24.0.txt
> index 26e018078d..bde154124c 100644
> --- a/Documentation/RelNotes/2.24.0.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/RelNotes/2.24.0.txt
> @@ -6,10 +6,9 @@ Updates since v2.23
>
>  Backward compatibility note
>
> - * Although it is not officially deprecated, "filter-branch" is
> -   showing its age and alternatives are available.  From this release,
> -   we started to discourage its uses and hint people about
> -   filter-repo.
> + * "filter-branch" is showing its age and alternatives are available.
> +   From this release, we started to discourage its use and hint
> +   people about filter-repo.

I suspect that this change was motivated by our off-list correspondence,
where I struggled to phrase a section about this in GitHub's release
highlights.

I think that I'm mostly reflecting what Elijah has already said himself
in another thread, but this change makes sense to me. I think that we
have effectively deprecated 'git-filter-branch'. If we're printing
warnings when it is called, and recommended that users refer to
'git-filter-repo' instead, I think that we might as well call it
deprecated.

But, if that phrase is too heavy-handed for 2.24, I think that this
patch makes a lot of sense. It's--as Elijah notes--confusing to say that
we recommend against using a tool but haven't 'officially' deprecated
it. This works nicely around that issue by not using the phrase
'deprecated' at all, and instead being clear about what the state of
'git filter-branch' is.

>  UI, Workflows & Features
>
> --
> gitgitgadget

Looks good to me.

Thanks,
Taylor
Junio C Hamano Nov. 2, 2019, 6:18 a.m. UTC | #2
Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com> writes:

> ... It's--as Elijah notes--confusing to say that
> we recommend against using a tool but haven't 'officially' deprecated
> it. This works nicely around that issue by not using the phrase
> 'deprecated' at all, and instead being clear about what the state of
> 'git filter-branch' is.

Sounds sensible.  Thanks, both.
diff mbox series

Patch

diff --git a/Documentation/RelNotes/2.24.0.txt b/Documentation/RelNotes/2.24.0.txt
index 26e018078d..bde154124c 100644
--- a/Documentation/RelNotes/2.24.0.txt
+++ b/Documentation/RelNotes/2.24.0.txt
@@ -6,10 +6,9 @@  Updates since v2.23
 
 Backward compatibility note
 
- * Although it is not officially deprecated, "filter-branch" is
-   showing its age and alternatives are available.  From this release,
-   we started to discourage its uses and hint people about
-   filter-repo.
+ * "filter-branch" is showing its age and alternatives are available.
+   From this release, we started to discourage its use and hint
+   people about filter-repo.
 
 UI, Workflows & Features