Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH v4 0/4] Introduction of l2-cache-full option for qcow2 images

[Eric Blake]

On 07/24/2018 05:20 PM, Leonid Bloch wrote:

meta-comment: a hint for more effective emails below

> > -------------------------
> > Differences from v2:
> >
> > 1) A separate patch for the grammar fix for 3.0
> > 2) A separate patch for existing documentation fixes for 3.0
> > 3) Separated back the iotests patch, because the grammar fix is separate now
> >
> > -------------------------
> > Differences from v2:
> * from v3
> > 1) Grammar change commit message fix

Visually, it's hard to pick out an inline reply prefixed with "*" amid a 
bunch of lines prefixed with ">", with no other hinting. (Actually, I'm 
finding it easier to read your email in my reply window, where 
thunderbird chose to use ">>" for double-quoted lines vs. "> *" for the 
single quoted line, which has a distinct whitespace change in column 2 
that the original email window did not.  But then again, I've been 
bitten by Thunderbird displaying quoting differently to me than it 
renders to the end recipient, so I don't know if "> *" will still have a 
space by the time you see this reply of mine).

I find that it is much more legible to always include a blank line 
around both ends of any text I type, as the eye is much quicker at 
picking out the absence of any character in column 1 than it is on 
deciphering which marks in column 1 serve as the indicator of 
transitions between quoted vs. new content in the thread.

> > 2) Rewording the documentation more concisely
> > 3) Squashing the l2-cache-full docs commit to the one that introduces this
> >     feature

Also, when replying to an archived list, it's okay to trim quoted text 
down to just the context relevant to the reply, to let the reader 
quickly reach the new content, rather than preserving the entire 
original email and forcing the reader to scroll through a wall of text 
just to locate the added thoughts. (Yes, some mail clients do a better 
job of coloring quoted text differently, and/or collapsing quoted 
material, so that not every reader has to scroll, but not everyone 
agrees on the ideal mail client). This email wasn't too bad, but you'll 
find instances of me making these same metacomments on other emails over 
the years if you search the archives :)

Finally, thanks for contributing, and for your rapid turnaround 
incorporating suggestions from my earlier reviews!  I know that 
sometimes when I make observations about making the review process more 
efficient for everyone involved, it makes me come across as a 
curmudgeonly old miser. In my efforts to be terse, I often forget to 
also be human and compliment contributors for making an effort in the 
first place, regardless of whether future efforts can be made even more 
efficient.

--
Eric Blake, Principal Software Engineer
Red Hat, Inc.           +1-919-301-3266
Virtualization:  qemu.org | libvirt.org