Re:Highlights from Git 2.25
by dragonwriter on Monday January 13, 2020 @07:34PM
(#22040479)
> I’ve never run across another piece of software that talked about itself this way.
Saying a piece of software “learned to” do something when it was programmed for a new feature is the same kind of anthropomorphism that leads one to talk about how a piece of software “talks about itself” when discussing project messaging, so it shouldn't seem that odd.
It not uncommon to anthromorphize software.
It's not very common, but there's more than a few projects that use 'learned':
> I’ve never run across another piece of software that talked about itself this way.
Whoever writes the CMake changelog does this constantly.
https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.14/release/3.14.html#command...
I agree, it is a very awkward way of writing.
Re:Highlights from Git 2.25
by downerending on Monday January 13, 2020 @07:00PM
(#22040200)
I remember several open source packages that used this idiom 15 or 20 years ago. It's probably a combination of a hat tip to the past, an inside joke, and the fact that the Git maintainer is not a native English speaker.
Smile--I think it's meant to amuse.
Re:Highlights from Git 2.25
by adrianmsmith on Tuesday January 14, 2020 @03:07AM
(#22042798)
I'm sure I read somewhere that Linus introduced this style of wording in a commit message. But alas I can't find the source right now (so I'm not even sure if I really did read it).
FWIW I see the corollary of this fairly often in commit messages, where the author "teaches" the code how to do something.
Incidentally I just noticed that in the Git code and frankly I found it confusing until I remembered this discussion about the tool "learning" stuff.
It's starting to grow a life of its own, slowly and slowly starting to become self-aware.
At a guess - new command line options are created by a GAN.
Personally I'd believe that.
Obligatory: https://git-man-page-generator.lokaltog.net/
Do you think Github patents these new fabricated options or would a good old copyright be sufficient?
> Git learned the ability to execute a “partial” clone...
> ..In Git 2.25, --format learned the verb l/L...
I’ve never run across another piece of software that talked about itself this way. I’ve tried to research it in the past, to see if it’s part of some software engineering philosophy, but have always come up short.
Anyone have any insight?