[[!template id=gitbranch branch=smcv/ready/document-success-reason author="[[smcv]]"
browse=http://git.pseudorandom.co.uk/smcv/ikiwiki.git/shortlog/refs/heads/ready/document-success-reason]]
[[!tag patch users/smcv/ready]]

Whenever I look at dependency calculation, for instance to solve
[[bugs/editing gitbranch template is really slow]], it takes me a while to
get my head round the concept of influences. The design documentation is
in [[todo/dependency_types]], but that takes the form of a long discussion
between [[Joey]] and [[Will]], so it's difficult to tell which of the
attempts to define influences were incorrect or have been superseded.

I think it would be valuable to have brief documentation
as doc-comments in the source code. My branch adds some;
please confirm whether I got it right? :-)

It would also be great to have a definition of what
should or shouldn't be counted as an influence, and which influences
should count as static or dynamic, perhaps analogous to
[git-annex's design pages](http://git-annex.branchable.com/design/)
and linked from the `match_foo` section of [[plugins/write]]. I haven't
written this myself because I'm somewhat stuck on the subtlety of what
"indirectly influenced" means... --[[smcv]]

>> the documentation looks correct to me, as far as i understand dependencies.
>> the documentation on `influences_static` could add a "Static influences are
>> what make `pagespec_match_list` more efficient than repeated
>> `pagespec_match_list`." to give an idea of why it is there in the first
>> place. --[[chrysn]]

>>> [[done]] in 3.20140916 --s