Would be nice to have a feature similar to Github's link to line (https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/pull/1937). epriestley thinks this is best done after T2009
Description
Description
| Status | Assigned | Task | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wontfix | epriestley | T4401 Linking to lines in a diff | ||
| Resolved | epriestley | T2009 Refactor DifferentialChangesetParser to support 1-up views and sanity | ||
| Restricted Maniphest Task |
Event Timeline
Comment Actions
Note that you can already link to a line in the Diffusion browse view, where this problem is much simpler. Here's an example:
This is slightly more difficult in the diff views and in Differential, primarily because we need to expand context when a user links to a line which is hidden behind "show more context".
Comment Actions
(Internally, see PHI2020.)
Currently, I haven't seen requests for this that clearly outline a compelling use case.
I worry that the use case I have seen ("send links to someone else in Slack") may actually be a bad use case, and authors receiving those links might often prefer to receive inline comments (asynchronously) instead of a synchronous chat notification. That is, I generally expect engineers and organizations value the asynchronous nature of Differential code review and want to avoid interrupting engineers when not necessary, and that features which convert asynchronous workflows into synchronous workflows should be presumed to be undesirable in the absence of robust use cases.
In an extreme case, we can imagine a "Start Zoom Call" button on Differential, which called the author and all the reviewers into a synchronous video chat. This would probably be a disastrously bad feature that wasted a terrible amount of time on the balance, even if some users really liked it.
If your organization would benefit from this feature (linking to lines in diff), please raise use cases via your support channel. It would be particularly helpful to understand why the value of this feature outweighs the implied costs of converting asynchronous workflows into synchronous workflows (or why your organization doesn't believe interrupting engineers is costly, or whatever other context impacts this workflow). If possible, I'd prefer to address whatever use cases exist in other ways -- for example, by making it easier to link to an inline comment, rather than a particular line.
Another thought is that some of the use case might be social -- it might feel a little embarrassing to ask (or point out) a silly question/mistake? I don't have any evidence of this, but if this is part of the use case, I'd like to at least consider something like a "private inline" between the reviewer and the author. I don't like the idea of this feature very much, but I like interrupting authors with Slack notifications even less.
(A robust use case may also evolve from the current discussion in PHI2020 and I may pursue this change once that develops; if so, I'll file some more-tailored upstream followup variant of this.)