Should gitmoji be codes or actual emoji characters?

[matejdro]

Hello :sunglasses:!

Gitmoji seems like a pretty good idea,

however one thing confuses me: Are commit messages supposed to contain codes (such as :bug:) or actual emoji characters (such as 🐛)? What is the accepted practice?

I've gone through git log of this repository with terminal (which does not replace any emoji codes) and some commits contained codes while other contained emoji characters.

[KaKi87]

See @vhoyer @johannchopin, that's what #489 is about.

[johannchopin]

Hey @matejdro 👋

Initially, gitmoji only refer to emoji shortcode like :bug:. But as you can see, not all tools support emoji shortcode so thats why I personally always use the emoji directly like 🐛. #420 introduce the feature of copy the emoji directly in the website but for efficiency I prefer to use the browser extension. You can also use gitmoji-cli if you use git in the command line.

So there is no accepted practice you can just use both 👍

[johannchopin]

@KaKi87 Not really 🤔 He just ask what is the accepted practice between :bug: and 🐛. Not which tools doesn't support emoji shortcode.

[KaKi87]

Well, choice depends on support.

[johannchopin]

The choice should be to be supported on all platform (that's why I use the emoji directly) 😉

[vhoyer]

I prefer to use shortcode on git, because it's easier to search for commits

[KaKi87]

The choice should be to be supported on all platform (that's why I use the emoji directly)

Actually, not all terminal emulators supports unicode emojis.

[matejdro]

It is pretty hard decision.

Pros for shortcode:

• Easily searchable
• No problems with unicode

Pros for direct emoji:

• Can be displayed on most terminals. AFAIK shortcodes only work on Github/Gitlab? I can't see it in terminal, nor in IDE. And it doesn't help that some shortcodes are not very obvious on what they mean commit-wise.

[vhoyer]

well, you can always use the gitmoji-log to see the emojis on your terminal haha, while on IDE I don't know if that has a fix :shrug:

When I started using gitmoji I always typed everything, so when I see :bento: or :chart_with_upwards_trend: I know exactly what they stand for :sweat_smile:

[carloscuesta]

You can use both of them, it's up to you to decide what format do you want to use!

[johannchopin]

Close the issue since the question has an answer 👍

[Buzut]

My 2 cents

A while ago, I opted for an Emojis-based commit guideline inspired by Angular's commit rules. The exact same question rose up and I asked on StackOverflow.

As it turns out, there is no one size fits all answer to this tricky matter. In the end, I came to the conclusion that:

• the vast majority of terminals and IDEs we spend our time in support Unicode, whereas in a lot of places, shortcodes won't be translated into Emojis,
• it is way easier to type shortcodes like :feat: or :bug: than to search for the right Emojis (whether from the OS character tool or going to an external website, it is a hassle).

The almost perfect answer

I use Git Hooks to dynamically convert the typed shortcodes into proper Unicode Emojis. This offers a double advantage:

• ease of typing while saving true Unicode Emojis,
• possibility to customise the shortcodes used. :perf: has more meaning than :rocket: when the commit is performance related for instance.

This led me to create Git Emojis Hook. So feel free to have a look at it and tweak it to your liking, or just clone and use 🙈

[johannchopin]

@Buzut Really like the project that you have created ⭐ Be aware that it doesn't follow the gitmoji syntax. Since I'm a developer I always have a browser tab open on my second screen so it is really fast to get the emoji using the browser extension🚀

[KaKi87]

the vast majority of terminals and IDEs we spend our time in support Unicode

• Windows Terminal doesn't support unicode
• Fork for Windows and Smartgit for Windows & Linux doesn't support emoji colors

possibility to customise the shortcodes used. :perf: has more meaning than :rocket: when the commit is performance related for instance.

Except the gitmoji for performance is :zap:, while :rocket: is the gitmoji for deployment. xD

[Buzut]

@KaKi87 well, it appears that Windows terminal supports Unicode (and Emojis) in recent versions.

In addition, more and more tools will move to supporting Emojis as time passes.

As for the Emoji choice, I’m not imposing anything. As I said, feel free to customize it to your needs.

Git Emoji Hook is based on Angular’s commit rules and replaced the commit type text based flag by an Emoji. The choice is arbitrary, but that’s just me, I never pretended to follow Gitmoji’s conventions.

[KaKi87]

@KaKi87 well, it appears that Windows terminal supports Unicode (and Emojis) in recent versions.