[mini.diff] Unstage hunks +signs

[drowning-cat]

About

I think of this feature as something like Planned Modules.

I’m sure you’ve already put a lot of thought into how to implement this, but it seems like it could be done through a pipeline with two sources. As far as I understand, the sources currently work on a stop_at_first principle, but if we could run two sources sequentially, unstaging a hunk would become possible.

The idea is to calculate both sources, with the first defined one taking precedence, effectively overlaying the index source over the HEAD commit files. I haven’t thought this through in depth yet, and there’s still a lot to figure out, especially around motions and highlights for each source. I'm also concerned about the performance of this approach.

So, was this concept considered when creating mini.diff?

P.S. I don’t use every feature of mini.diff, like overlay, but even so, I really like it. Great work 💥🚀

Illustration

• The deleted code (see the last block in the image) is highlighted in orange, but it can also be red/coral — depending on the delete highlight for the git stage source.
• For the git stage source, gh/gH — stage/reset hunk. Unstage hunk can be a separate keymap outside of mappings.

[echasnovski]

I remember trying really hard to design 'mini.diff' in such a way that it would support Git unstaging. In the end any idea I head (if any, don't remember the specifics) was too complex either from the code point of view or design.

My main problem with unstaging hunks directly from the buffer is that staged hunks need to be visualized (as a sign or highlighted number) in order to be useful. And it feels confusing to me to have regular and staged hunks mixed like that. Especially with a more general than a Git model of 'mini.diff'.

Now that you're mentioning a different source... A more approachable way of doing this might be to:

• Open a split window with a dedicated buffer that contains a text from a staging area. Equivalent of :vert Git show :0:%.
• Make its 'mini.diff' source that:
  • Uses the state at the HEAD commit as a reference text. Like from :vert Git show HEAD:%.
  • Has apply_hunk as "unstage" action. Not sure about the exact git command here.

This sounds interesting, but not sure if this is a good fit for either 'mini.diff' or 'mini.git'. If anything, 'mini.git' sounds closer.

[231tr0n]

Just to add my opinion, as of now I feel mini.diff is good as is, using gH to reset hunk is something followed in all the editors like VS Code, IntelliJ, etc. Besides, at least from what I notice, people rarely use unstaging and that too when they stage some changes by mistake or if they have to redo certain changes again since requirements have changed. And in that case, they could probably make use of this picker to unstage that specific hunk which I took from one of the discussion sections. Although it adds a little bit of overhead in terms of operating, this should suffice. Adding this choose_marked action by default to git_hunks picker and mentioning this as the way should suffice from my point of view.

	MiniPick.registry.git_hunks = function(local_opts)
		MiniExtra.pickers.git_hunks(local_opts, {
			source = {
				choose_marked = function(items_marked)
					vim.tbl_map(function(item)
						local patch = vim.deepcopy(item.header)
						vim.list_extend(patch, item.hunk)
						local cmd
						if local_opts.scope == "staged" then
							cmd = { "git", "apply", "--cached", "--reverse", "-" }
						else
							cmd = { "git", "apply", "--cached", "-" }
						end
						vim.system(cmd, { stdin = patch }):wait()
					end, items_marked)
				end,
			},
		})
	end

[drowning-cat]

@231tr0n
For me, it’s more about visualizing what was staged and being able to reset it. I like that I can see what I’m committing after staging, that’s pretty useful. Right now, it’s more like "you stage, you forget", but generally it’s good practice to commit right away.

[drowning-cat]

Now that you're mentioning a different source... A more approachable way of doing this might be to:

• Open a split window with a dedicated buffer that contains a text from a staging area. Equivalent of :vert Git show :0:%.

• Make its 'mini.diff' source that:

  • Uses the state at the HEAD commit as a reference text. Like from :vert Git show HEAD:%.
  • Has apply_hunk as "unstage" action. Not sure about the exact git command here.

This sounds interesting, but not sure if this is a good fit for either 'mini.diff' or 'mini.git'. If anything, 'mini.git' sounds closer.

Sounds very mini.nvim-like, which is great, but I also like gitsigns approach because it always provides a simple visual indication, which is also useful for very long lines.