Suggestion: Add UI treatment to default and protective branches

[tierninho]

Enhancement suggestion: As it can be unclear to the user that the current branch they are working on is the default or a protective branch, I suggest we show a default badge next to the respective branch name in the below pic. Alternatively, we could change the text color.

Also, we should have a 🔒icon or similar to respective protected branches. No UI treatment currently exists for this... instead we get a over-the-top error message like so. (Note, this could co-exist with the default badge, btw.)

Why do it? To add an extra layer of communication to the state of each branch being worked on by the user.

[billygriffin]

@tierninho Thanks for raising these! When we think about the problems here, do you think they're the same or are there maybe two separate ones? Here's how I'm thinking about them just as initial gut reaction:

1. "I'm not sure if the branch I'm currently on is my default branch, and it would be helpful for me to know that."

On that one, my initial reaction was "oh yeah, that seems good" but then I couldn't really point to why. Do you have thoughts on what that additional context provides? Like why do they care?

2. "If I'm on a protected branch, there's nothing letting me know that ahead of time and therefore I might do a bunch of work, then try to push, only THEN to realize that the branch is protected and I can't push to it."

This seems like a far more obvious "why" as it seems like it'd be helpful in at least letting people know ahead of time that they might be in for some pain later on unless they do something different (like move to a unprotected branch now before starting their work).

Thoughts?

[tierninho]

@billygriffin Thanks for the helpful feedback on this issue.

1. A bit of an edge case in my reasoning for the default badge. The badge would be beneficial to those who have named their default branches something ambiguous. The badge would serve as a reminder that the commits are going to the default branch, and to others new to the repo. I agree, that this change doesn't have a strong business case.

2. Yes, the protected branch icon is obvious, and would be useful to reduce pain later on. I'll leave the decision to the team.

[billygriffin]

I'm going to roll this into #4482 as I think they shouldn't be considered in isolation. The primary question we want to answer is how we deal with protected branches and ensuring that Desktop users have the information they need to be successful (both in getting the right error messages and in not getting into a painful place in the first place).