Regarding naming, the technical difference is that scm-record is a library and scm-diff-editor is a binary.
scm-diff-editor can be used as a general difftool (I have it configured for Git usage directly).
Before scm-record was integrated into jj, you could only use external difftools, so there was advice to configure scm-diff-editor then.
It’s now built-in, so that section of the docs should be updated (although you could still choose to configure scm-diff-editor as an external diff editor if you wanted to for some reason).
The previous default was meld IIRC, which was not guaranteed to be installed on the user’s machine.
I always get confused about the order of commit messages when splitting.
I select some files, or chunks of those files, but then do I write the commit message for those, or do I write the commit message for what remained, and then write the commit message for what I selected?
I usually just write commit1, commit2 and then go and edit the commit message once I see what is actually included in each.
Showing the actual diff while writing the commit message might help.
I believe this issue might help you. jj does provide a way to adjust your commit message view to show the diff within it. A quick btw git does not show the diff by default either within the commit message.
It might also help if the commit message comment said something more explicit, like “This commit contains the following changes that were just selected via {tool-name}”
The scm-record library supports viewing/editing the commit message inline, which git-branchless uses, but jj doesn’t yet. In principle, that could help you orient yourself and figure out which commit you’re editing, and also reduce the feedback loop between splitting changes and editing the commit message.
Thanks for doing this! I was only about 20% of the way through doing the same code spelunking and summarizing, to try to fix the issue mentioned above, where “?” is currently a placeholder. Now I can avoid trying to learn how to do column layouts in their TUI system, and leave the last mile to someone who already knows that part. :)
It could use a lot of help!
?, which will then tell you that you can use the mouse to click the menu items and see all the keybindings.scm-recordis a library andscm-diff-editoris a binary.scm-diff-editorcan be used as a general difftool (I have it configured for Git usage directly).scm-recordwas integrated into jj, you could only use external difftools, so there was advice to configurescm-diff-editorthen.scm-diff-editoras an external diff editor if you wanted to for some reason).meldIIRC, which was not guaranteed to be installed on the user’s machine.I always get confused about the order of commit messages when splitting. I select some files, or chunks of those files, but then do I write the commit message for those, or do I write the commit message for what remained, and then write the commit message for what I selected? I usually just write commit1, commit2 and then go and edit the commit message once I see what is actually included in each. Showing the actual diff while writing the commit message might help.
Whatever you select to split is always the first commit. The remainder is the second.
I agree, if you can’t tell by the files alone (ie you’re splitting chunks, not files), it can be confusing.
https://github.com/jj-vcs/jj/issues/1946
I believe this issue might help you. jj does provide a way to adjust your commit message view to show the diff within it. A quick btw git does not show the diff by default either within the commit message.
It might also help if the commit message comment said something more explicit, like “This commit contains the following changes that were just selected via {tool-name}”
The
scm-recordlibrary supports viewing/editing the commit message inline, which git-branchless uses, but jj doesn’t yet. In principle, that could help you orient yourself and figure out which commit you’re editing, and also reduce the feedback loop between splitting changes and editing the commit message.See also https://github.com/arxanas/scm-record/issues/50
Thanks for doing this! I was only about 20% of the way through doing the same code spelunking and summarizing, to try to fix the issue mentioned above, where “?” is currently a placeholder. Now I can avoid trying to learn how to do column layouts in their TUI system, and leave the last mile to someone who already knows that part. :)