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Show HN: ugit – Learn Git Internals by Building Git in Python

leshenko.net

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Re: Show HN: ugit – Learn Git Internals by Building Git in Python

#21

Post by nikital »

gumby wrote: post #17

> The real Git code is too complicated to be useful for learning basic concepts with ease. ... It deals with a lot of edge cases that we don't care about for learning. Good choice, well explained. More than a toy problem space but stripped of factors that obscure the lesson. The author knows what they are doing.

> stripped of factors that obscure the lesson

Yes! I'm going to adopt that wording. Originally I tried to do a screencast about guided Git source code exploration but it didn't work because of that reason.

Re: Show HN: ugit – Learn Git Internals by Building Git in Python

#22

Post by spapas82 »

For anybody interested I've built a python lib to read the latest commit from a git repo: https://github.com/spapas/python-git-info/

This is a pure python implementation that started simple (just read a couple of files from the .git folder) but after a little I understood that for non trivial repos you'll need to deal with pack for files. Because I had already published the package I actually completed the pack parsing work but I have to confess that it's way too complex and I wouldn't have started the project if I knew better...

In any case the source is there if you want to take a look!

Re: Show HN: ugit – Learn Git Internals by Building Git in Python

#24

Post by burroisolator »

nikital wrote: post #19
ravenide wrote: post #12

Is this tutorial interface (navigation, diffs, files/downloads at each step) custom made? It's pretty nice for this kind of format.

It was custom made for the tutorial. I didn't release it yet because I mostly focused on polishing the tutorial itself and not the code for the interface. Do you think people would be interested in the interface by itself?

I would certainly take a look. It would be amusing if you released it using the interface itself.

Re: Show HN: ugit – Learn Git Internals by Building Git in Python

#25

Post by necovek »

burroisolator wrote: post #24
nikital wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was custom made for the tutorial. I didn't release it yet because I mostly focused on polishing the tutorial itself and not the code for the interface. Do you think people would be interested in the interface by itself?

I would certainly take a look. It would be amusing if you released it using the interface itself.

Literal programming from Knuth's WEB adapted to modern web ;)

Re: Show HN: ugit – Learn Git Internals by Building Git in Python

#26

Post by necovek »

I believe this is a wonderful way for someone to learn a piece of technology in depth.

But I have to wonder if you actually had anyone (else!) successfully _use_ this to further their understanding of git?

Generally, for me, it's either myself doing the exercise unguided, reading the documentation on internals, or reading the original source code. So I am certain it was a huge benefit for you, but it's more of a question on the approach being used with "students" and how successful would it be?

Re: Show HN: ugit – Learn Git Internals by Building Git in Python

#27

Post by nikital »

necovek wrote: post #26

I believe this is a wonderful way for someone to learn a piece of technology in depth. But I have to wonder if you actually had anyone (else!) successfully _use_ this to further their understanding of git? Generally, for me, it's either myself doing the exercise unguided, reading the documentation on internals, or reading the original source code. So I am certain it was a huge benefit for you, but it's more of a ques…

I've seen people's Git skills improve after I taught them Git internals, but I taught them in a standard lecture format.

I didn't try teaching Git internals using code before, but I hypothesized it would be a good idea, and here is the result :) I'm curious about its effectiveness as well.

Re: Show HN: ugit – Learn Git Internals by Building Git in Python

#28

Post by ponytech »

nikital wrote: post #19
ravenide wrote: post #12

Is this tutorial interface (navigation, diffs, files/downloads at each step) custom made? It's pretty nice for this kind of format.

It was custom made for the tutorial. I didn't release it yet because I mostly focused on polishing the tutorial itself and not the code for the interface. Do you think people would be interested in the interface by itself?

Definitely! It is so well done at first I though I was on a MOOC site and navigated to the home to figure out if there were more tutorials :)

Re: Show HN: ugit – Learn Git Internals by Building Git in Python

#29

Post by necovek »

nikital wrote: post #27
necovek wrote: post #26

I believe this is a wonderful way for someone to learn a piece of technology in depth. But I have to wonder if you actually had anyone (else!) successfully _use_ this to further their understanding of git? Generally, for me, it's either myself doing the exercise unguided, reading the documentation on internals, or reading the original source code. So I am certain it was a huge benefit for you, but it's more of a ques…

I've seen people's Git skills improve after I taught them Git internals, but I taught them in a standard lecture format. I didn't try teaching Git internals using code before, but I hypothesized it would be a good idea, and here is the result :) I'm curious about its effectiveness as well.

Then kudos on the effort for the experiment: not sure how I can best track the success of this initiative of yours, but best of luck regardless!
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