On 2023-10-22 12:30, Oswald Buddenhagen wrote:
On Sun, Oct 22, 2023 at 08:38:19AM +0200, Dragan Simic wrote:
True, but I still think that having git put its thoughts into tables
is actually not helpful.
i'm not convinced that the proposed feature specifically would have
helped me, either (i found the index a rather obvious concept once i
knew that it's there), but i'm making a general argument here. so:
To be precise, it actually might be helpful, but only to the first
category of users, who will never reach it. I mean, never say never,
but in this case I'm pretty sure it's safe to say it.
well, and i think that you're wrong about that.
your categorization is simply wrong, because it assumes an incorrect
static model.
while for the last decade i've been as much of a git expert as one can
reasonably be without being literally obsessed with it or having
written much of it, i absolutely *did* start out in your first
category (as in, it was forced upon me, while i couldn't have cared
less about the specifics - p4 was working well enough (or so i
thought)). and i hated this stupid git (it was 2009, and it was much
more of a pita for noobs than it is now). i certainly could have used
more sensible visualizations at every step - on the command line,
because that's where i mostly "live".
Oh, that's awesome and I'm really happy to be wrong with my broad
classification of VCS users. However, I still need to be convinced
further, and I'd assign your example as an exception to the rules,
especially because you migrated to git from another VCS, which you
liked, and because you use the command line a lot.
Full disclosure, I used Subversion for many years and I loved it. I
knew it very well and it did all I needed for me and the team I worked
with. Then git came and I really didn't like it, because it was touted
to be "the best thing ever". After using git for a while, I can firmly
say that git is awesome, but that it also is a total overkill for many
projects that need a VCS, for which choosing Subversion would be a much
batter choice. Why, you'll ask? Because Subversion is many times
simpler, and because many projects actually don't need a distributed
VCS.
the second major error in the thinking is that "expert" and "gui user"
are mutually exclusive categories. while i do most things on the
command line, i would never voluntarily use "add -p" - why should i
inflict that pain upon me, when i can simply use git-gui to do the job
in a much more visual and freely navigable way? the same goes for "log
--graph" vs. gitk, and git's "blame" function vs. qt creator's (or
git-gui's, but i don't use it for that).
I also ask myself why would I use git-gui or any other GUI utility? To
me, clicking on something that represents a file is often simply wrong.
Though, I understand that many people prefer GUI utilities and I respect
that, everyone is free to do anything, but I also expect others to
respect my own preferences.
