ugh. i left out a probably significant fact that means i'd have to rework the whole post which i can't do atm.
in /this particular example/ the file will actually still be there after staging. i forgot there are other changes in this concrete example. i am trying to clean up a set of magit changes that has this kind of mingling, but not in the plain list. as part of doing so, i had the idea of getting this plain list out of the file entirely. merely because i edit the plain list and don't want to make the diff more complex by doing so. the plain list is not part of the diff, and i wanted to have it not re-enter the diff when i edit it. when refiling the plain list entry created the same kind of chaos i was trying to reduce, i thought to move it /within/ the file. chaos. so i moved it to near the beg. chaos. then at the end. chaos. so you can take the post as, not a specific example, but what causes mingling in org with diff? or something like that. On 11/12/22, Samuel Wales <samolog...@gmail.com> wrote: > i have a very old version of Magit, for reasons I won't get into. > Fancier diff settings might be differnet or not available. > > But something drives me crazy. Probably not too Org-related, but it > might be. I just want to know why, is all. > > I have a 24k line org file, and it's not that complex wrt levels. 2 > or 3 levels with odd stars only. various types of content. > > someplace in it, is an entry with a 234-item plain list. if i try to > move this entry, and make no other changes, diff goes insane. if i > try to refile this entry to a different org file, diff similarly goes > insane, with the - part. only that change. > > ok, what it does is, intersperse or mingle entries. so suppose i want > to stage this one tiny little change, namely moving one entry [the one > with the large plain list] to a different location in the same file. > even if i move it really distantly. > > i.e. i want to put the - and the + of the move to the staging area in > magit. unstaged changes should then not have this file in it at all > after the staging operations. > > then, basically, staged changes will have this move. > > as a user, i want diff to make this two hunks, a big - and a big +. > but diff mingles parts of another entry or entries with this list, so > that it is scattered all over the diff. to get the result i want > requires tons of intra-hunk stage operations. at best. > > so, what aspect of diff or org is triggering this kind of behavior? > what is it that diff needs to understand about org, or what minimality > etc. settings does it want to create a better diff? > > i know org has lots of similar lines [e.g. planning headers with > scheduled dates that are identical]. but still, this is a nontrivial > size org file, with no other changes that i made. diff's insanity > still occurs even if i move the entry distantly. > > i am of course aware of histogram, patience, etc. and that git diff > has a few experimental choices of options. also long ago i read diff > manual with its discussion of end of file beg of file and minimality > with --minimal and all that stuff. > > however, here, though, i am mostly interested in specifically what > diff's, or git diff's, or magit's, /deal/ is. in /this/ case. > > where does it get off doing that? everything else is the same, so why > is it keying on the wrong thing? > > does it think i made the changes as it presents them, or does it go > for some other goal like minimality or speed and not really care what > i did? is it because it e.g. ignores end or beg of file or so? or is > it getting confused by some line? > > i have of course heard of merge something or others. which presumably > tell diff about the structure of files or so. like, the fact that the > planning line always follows the header. or perhaps i am imagining > this kind of tool. > > now, whether i can mitigte it is interesting /after/ that. my > paleolithic magit version might not be capable, but still. > > -- > The Kafka Pandemic > > A blog about science, health, human rights, and misopathy: > https://thekafkapandemic.blogspot.com > -- The Kafka Pandemic A blog about science, health, human rights, and misopathy: https://thekafkapandemic.blogspot.com
