Re: [Quilt-dev] [PATCH] Fix interaction between quilt and vimdiff

[Kaz Kylheku]

On Sun, 04 Mar 2012 10:11:54 +0100, Andreas Gruenbacher
<address@hidden> wrote:
> On Fre, 2012-03-02 at 13:58 +0100, Jean Delvare wrote:
>> Using vimdiff as a diff viewer in quilt breaks if QUILT_PAGER is set.
>> So inhibit the pager in that case. Other diff viewers may be affected
>> as well but I don't know how to fix this in a generic way, short of
>> inhibiting the pager as soon as option --diff is passed to the diff
>> command. Not sure if this desirable though, as I presume
>> non-interactive alternative diff viewers must exist too.
> 
> I think we don't really need the pages logic when the --diff=command
> option is used: the command can implement paging itself if that is
> desired.

I beg to differ. Rather, I beg that a diff command is only a differ,
and refrains from being overloaded with the unrelated job of paging.

A --diff interface that kills your pager and forces you to reimplement
the paging in the diff command is going to be a nuisance for
people who just want to use "diff" with different options,
like more context lines, etc.

A visual diff like vimdiff is different from a diff utility,
and it's not a pager. It's an integration of both,
which cannot be used as a substitute for either.

Therefore, here is a suggestion: if displaying diffs are to be
supported, then have an option for them like --display-diff, and
maybe even a QUILT_DISPLAY_DIFF environment variable.