[[!comment format=mdwn
 username="joey"
 subject="""comment 3"""
 date="2018-10-04T18:35:28Z"
 content="""
I'm not convinced that git-annex should try to make the symlinks shorter
just because some programs have UIs that don't work well with longer
symlinks. UIs can be improved.

I like to use `ls -lL` for example, which conveniently
avoids displaying the symlink target and also shows the size of the annexed
file.

Using the MD5 backend will also give you much shorter symlinks..

External backends is an interesting idea, but needing to deal with the
backend being missing or failing to work could have wide repurcussions in
the code base. It feels like too much complexity for too little gain.
"""]]
