A simple guide for getting started with git • Hacker News Board

Re: A simple guide for getting started with git

#121

Post by sequoia » Tue, Jan 10, 2012, 5:41 AM UTC

alexholehouse wrote: post #74

xradionut wrote: post #70

Why not just download Eric Sink's "Version Control by Example" ? http://www.ericsink.com/vcbe/ The book is free or can be purchased and explains both git and Mercurial with similar examples. We use it at our office to get novices up to speed on source control.

It was available in paperback for free a few months ago too (may still be, not sure). I got it, for free, in Europe. From the states. I have no idea how that works financially, but it's a great book on a number of levels and Eric has my utmost respect because of it.

Thanks for the tip! I just ordered one. There's a lead-gen form you fill out in exchange, but if the book's legit, that's a reasonable price.

Re: A simple guide for getting started with git

#122

Post by zecho » Tue, Jan 10, 2012, 6:42 AM UTC

darksaga wrote: post #63

Having used SVN, and in the process of starting a new job where they use GIT, this actually helped quite a bit. It was quite timely for me.

You may also be interested in this: http://git.or.cz/course/svn.html

Re: A simple guide for getting started with git

#123

Post by gildur » Tue, Jan 10, 2012, 7:34 AM UTC

Although I already learned how to get started in git "the hard way", I think this guide is really helpful for beginners. I know I would have appreciated it. As a matter of fact, the first repo I pushed to github was a guide on how to do do stuff in github =D

Re: A simple guide for getting started with git

#124

Post by xxqs » Tue, Jan 10, 2012, 9:22 AM UTC

gnosis wrote: post #105

Git is an ungodly, half-baked, cobbled-together, overcomplicated mess. If it weren't for git's speed and Linus' name attached to it, I'd be shocked to see any experienced developers using it.

no, it's pretty easy to use and pretty consistent if you try to understand its internal logics.

Re: A simple guide for getting started with git

#125

Post by ungerik » Tue, Jan 10, 2012, 11:18 AM UTC

Thanks in the name of all visual impaired, but for 30px font is simply to large for me to read.

Re: A simple guide for getting started with git

#126

Post by petercooper » Tue, Jan 10, 2012, 11:51 AM UTC

adrianmsmith wrote: post #69

I think git is not easy to use, and the proof of that is that at least once a month there is a "how to use git" tutorial on the front-page of HN. I'm not saying git is a totally bad system, but I disagree with people who think git is easy to use. You don't see thousands of tutorials on the web, and tutorials hitting the HN frontpage on "How to use Subversion", "My personal Subversion workflow", "My .bashrc file conta…

There were a lot of articles of that sort around back when SVN was interesting and people were bothering to learn it in large numbers. HN wasn't around then, of course, but I remember it sweeping through the Ruby community at the time.

SVN has had its wave of tutorials and hype (usually comparing it favorably to CVS at the time). Git's wave still seems to be roaring. When the next system comes out, we'll see tutorials for that every couple of weeks too and Git will be where SVN is now.

Re: A simple guide for getting started with git

#127

Post by tocomment » Tue, Jan 10, 2012, 1:36 PM UTC

It's weird it says "create a new branch named "feature_x" and switch to it using ..." but it doesn't give you the command to create the branch.

Is that a "bug"?

Re: A simple guide for getting started with git

#128

Post by tocomment » Tue, Jan 10, 2012, 1:36 PM UTC

Isn't pull bad for some reason? I thought you were supposed to use fetch and merge separately. I can't remember why though.

Re: A simple guide for getting started with git

#129

Post by spacemanaki » Tue, Jan 10, 2012, 1:47 PM UTC

tocomment wrote: post #128

Isn't pull bad for some reason? I thought you were supposed to use fetch and merge separately. I can't remember why though.

Pull is the same as doing fetch and merge individually. It's only "bad" in the sense that it might do something you're not ready to do yet. If you fetch first, you can inspect the changes before you merge them.

Re: A simple guide for getting started with git

#130

Post by pixeldude » Tue, Jan 10, 2012, 2:29 PM UTC

necolas wrote: post #78

skrebbel wrote: post #12

I don't get this. Sure, the tutorial looks very pretty, but it does not explain any concepts. "Create a new repository." What is a repository? What do I do with it? The HEAD is a tree "which points to the last commit you've made". Huh? A tree can point? The one in my garden can't. Also, what's a commit? I thought "commit" was a verb, not a noun. And so on. It's nice that people want to make something as complex as gi…

Your feedback is probably exactly what the project needs in order to become a better introductory guide. As such, I'm surprised the site doesn't include an obvious link to the GitHub repo/issues [1] so that people who have not been enlightened, or want to contribute better explanations, can share what needs to be clarified. [1] https://github.com/rogerdudler/git-guide

I've added the link on the site. Thanks for the hint!