So You Think You Know Git? - FOSDEM 2024 : programming

[–] [email protected] 34 points 9 months ago (4 children)

No, I do not.

[–] eager_eagle 21 points 9 months ago (1 children)

nonsense - never just delete the project and start fresh. You spend 20min trying to diagnose the problem by searching for the error messages and looking at the manual, then 1h-2h trying different solutions that only make the problem worse up to the point you actually think you lost your changes, then you realize your changes were stashed all along, then you apply them and notice you still have the same original problem. You try a few more commands that get you to a detached head. Then you try to solve a detached head, realizing after 30 min it's an impossible task, and only then you delete everything and start fresh.

[–] agent_flounder 9 points 9 months ago

I see you have been spying on me for some time.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Omg i can feel this xkcd

[–] slazer2au 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Git pull

Git push

Git stash

The only 3 I know.

[–] eager_eagle 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

that and git log + git status to "debug git"

anything else is a magic spell you copy from stack overflow

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I wish Mercurial had won.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

I'm with you. Hg-git still is to this day the best git UI I know...

[–] PanoptiDon 2 points 9 months ago

Same same

[–] tinkeringidiot 15 points 9 months ago

Nobody knows git. We all just run the few basic commands, then again with the -f switch just in case. Then if that doesn’t work, reclone.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

Uh…I know enough to get in trouble with it?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Regarding visual client: I've been using TortoiseGit since early on and no other client I've tried came close.

I use the log view and have an overview, and an entry point to all common operations I need. Other tools often fail on good overview, blaming through earlier revisions, filterable views of commits or files, or interactive rebase.

[–] technojamin 3 points 9 months ago

This was a really good talk! I’ve been using git for about a decade, but I learned several new things. Here’s a few:

Sorting git log by committer date
Speeding up common operations on bigger repos with git maintenance
More useful file blame with the -C flag on git blame

[+] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I started using git meaningfully about 10 years ago. Mercurial maybe 6 years ago but not very much. And I was not a fan. Especially how it tracks things recursively.

So honest question. Why?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Mercurial has comparable features (though maybe not obvious to someone accustomed to git) without the usability problems that still plague git nearly two decades later. Hg's interface was made with humans in mind. Git's was made to cut you.

(And it has cut so very many people that it's consistently among the most popular topics in Q&A forums, and has even inspired comics.)

Thankfully, git's early cross-platform shortcomings were eventually fixed, so that's at least some progress. I hope its UI and docs eventually get some love, too.

Programming

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