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Gitbox 1.0 released: a version control app for Mac

gitboxapp.com

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Re: Gitbox 1.0 released: a version control app for Mac

#61

Obviously the command line version is going to suit most people here better. That is completely missing the point. This will be perfect for those of us who work in teams with less technical people who still need r/w access to repositories. This will save us from training the designer and manager types in our organisations to use the command line tools, and as such will pay for itself.

Developers, too. Until you study and play with git for a long time, local/remote branches and pushing/pulling are hard to understand and very hard visualize. With Gitbox it's like reading your e-mail. I promote it at work as "the git client with five buttons" because that simplicity is worth a lot.

Re: Gitbox 1.0 released: a version control app for Mac

#62
post #4

65 MB? For a git browser? Really?

I don't know why it takes that much space, but that doesn't seem like enough space to worry about on a Mac.

Some of the applications on my computer that are bigger than Gitbox: Google Chrome, Wireshark, Inkscape, iPhoto, Komodo Edit, etc. My hard drive barely noticed when I downloaded Gitbox, so practically the only difference was a few extra seconds of download time that I didn't notice, that's all I was trying to say. Your comment was helpful to the developer in the end, so kudos.

Re: Gitbox 1.0 released: a version control app for Mac

#63
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brotherbard's fork has a bunch of additional features and I've found it to be pretty stable. I use it daily and highly recommend it. https://github.com/brotherbard/gitx

Another good tool that works on all platforms is smartgit: http://www.syntevo.com/smartgit/index.html

It is subject to a German license agreement...

Re: Gitbox 1.0 released: a version control app for Mac

#64
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gitbox is superior to what you have today. Very common things like commiting and checking the status and log are much faster and cleaner than in the command line or GitX. It is easier to extract a file from history, compare and manage the branches. You also pay for a level of attention to details in Gitbox, I explain it here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1944698

Talk with some web designers who have been looking for a decent gui tool for git. They don't want to learn to use command line and aren't happy with existing tool support. They are your market. Go to a local designer meetup group and sell your software to every one of them. Iterate on feedback, absolutely, but don't iterate on feedback of hackers, iterate on feedback of people who actually want your software and are…

Absolutely right! One of the guys I was working with at my last contract was an old Java guy that loved Eclipse. We talked about moving from SVN to Git but he resisted because there was no good, proven, stable, active development GUI for Git in Eclipse. Build that plug-in and you can charge for it - guaranteed!

Re: Gitbox 1.0 released: a version control app for Mac

#65
post #14

The tagline seems quite negative: "Linus made Git for himself. Gitbox brings Git to everyone." Without Linus' free creation this app wouldn't exist at all.

It's not negative at all. It is a credit to Linus as a creator. Linus made a great tool and the command line UI is enough for him. Gitbox just makes his creation accessible to others and everybody wins.

Please don't get defensive. Accept the feedback. Move on.

And yes, whether it was intended or not, that statement can be inferred as a negative.

Re: Gitbox 1.0 released: a version control app for Mac

#67
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gitbox is superior to what you have today. Very common things like commiting and checking the status and log are much faster and cleaner than in the command line or GitX. It is easier to extract a file from history, compare and manage the branches. You also pay for a level of attention to details in Gitbox, I explain it here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1944698

Talk with some web designers who have been looking for a decent gui tool for git. They don't want to learn to use command line and aren't happy with existing tool support. They are your market. Go to a local designer meetup group and sell your software to every one of them. Iterate on feedback, absolutely, but don't iterate on feedback of hackers, iterate on feedback of people who actually want your software and are…

This is the biggest obstacle to getting web developers moved over to Git at work. I am moving the team to task branches over the next few months, and the whole idea of branching/merging/pushing/pulling is proving difficult for them to internalize. They can handle basic branching and the svn model, but for Git to be successful in my organization, I'll need something like this.

I registered to encourage development of tools such as this and to give it a thorough run-through at work.

Re: Gitbox 1.0 released: a version control app for Mac

#68
While it's nice to see native Git apps taking off like this, I don't think this app is mature enough for daily use yet. Having to leave the app for a diff is too much of an interruption.

I like that the author is paying attention to little details, and I'm sure he'll improve the app over time, but right now I'm not seeing $40 worth of value over GitX.

Re: Gitbox 1.0 released: a version control app for Mac

#69
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gitbox is superior to what you have today. Very common things like commiting and checking the status and log are much faster and cleaner than in the command line or GitX. It is easier to extract a file from history, compare and manage the branches. You also pay for a level of attention to details in Gitbox, I explain it here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1944698

Talk with some web designers who have been looking for a decent gui tool for git. They don't want to learn to use command line and aren't happy with existing tool support. They are your market. Go to a local designer meetup group and sell your software to every one of them. Iterate on feedback, absolutely, but don't iterate on feedback of hackers, iterate on feedback of people who actually want your software and are…

[deleted]

Re: Gitbox 1.0 released: a version control app for Mac

#70
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Talk with some web designers who have been looking for a decent gui tool for git. They don't want to learn to use command line and aren't happy with existing tool support. They are your market. Go to a local designer meetup group and sell your software to every one of them. Iterate on feedback, absolutely, but don't iterate on feedback of hackers, iterate on feedback of people who actually want your software and are…

Thanks for the inspiration :-)

> "If you're dead-set on developers as your market, there are a ton of folks who still use svn with a gui because "no good git guis exist". These are the non-power-users of version control."

Look at all the unanswered questions in Google results for how to integrate Mercurial or Git into Coda.

This class of developer is looking for tools between Dreamweaver and curl -- arguably, most developers.

Turning your tool into a plugin or add-on to some existing editors would garner a lot of them, with those editors' sites serving as a marketing platform too.

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