Very slick, but also very slow. Occasionally I have to run a command twice for it to register. Also, it's strange that git's output isn't colorized, considering the "Success!" messages are.
Totally agree
Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?
21–30 of 178 posts
Re: Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?
#22Nice idea but far too basic. I need a Masterclass Git page.
there are some more advanced stuff here, still not expert though : https://github.com/Gazler/githug
would be cool to actually run githug under that website :)
Re: Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?
#23This tutorial is very pretty and does a great job of emulating the local Git experience using just a single interactive webpage. However, Github seems to be trying to introduce Git to a wider audience - namely non-developers. From the blog post[1]: "If you know of a developer, designer, or other knowledge worker that would benefit from using Git but that hasn't made the leap just yet, send them over to try.github.com…
Many great points Jyri. This course certainly is not meant to be a completely detailed introduction. At Code School we're in the middle of working on something that should be more of a step by step introduction.
However, I think there's something to be said for showing people how they can be immediately productive with a tool before really understanding everything that's going on underneath. With just a few commands someone can start using git successfully, and that's all we were trying to communicate with this tutorial.
Re: Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?
#24Runs a bit slow, but impressive nonetheless. I appreciate the simple but effective interface.
I love when sites do something like this in order to give potential users a quick taste of a language or technology. I already learned Git using the Pro Git book, but this would have come in handy as an introductory lesson.
This also reminds me the of the awesome tryruby.org
Re: Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?
#25Something that often gets glossed over in explaining version control to a non-developer is, "WTF is happening with my files?"
The concept of a single folder containing multiple versions of your stuff is a big deal; the fact that you can't simply navigate to a branch as if it's a different folder--that you can't "see" all your files at once--is a non-trivial thing to punch through.
Re: Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?
#26I really appreciate the new learning tools to become more adept at programming and the command line. However, I often find myself mindlessly re-typing the commands being thrown at me without really understanding what's going on, or why I'm being asked to do it.
I liked the approach of Ruby Monks where they give you a task and let you guess the syntax. If you got stuck you then look at the solution.
I don't mean to make less of try git, or any other interactive tutorial. We live in a wonderful time where we are able to learn powerful tools without even installing them, so I almost feel bad about making this criticism. But I think current tools could be improved by removing some of the wizardy feeling and allowing users to play around and trying to figure out stuff on their own.
Re: Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?
#27This tutorial is very pretty and does a great job of emulating the local Git experience using just a single interactive webpage. However, Github seems to be trying to introduce Git to a wider audience - namely non-developers. From the blog post[1]: "If you know of a developer, designer, or other knowledge worker that would benefit from using Git but that hasn't made the leap just yet, send them over to try.github.com…
It's hard to know how well it works for non-developers until we've had hundreds of non-developers going through the course. Which should hopefully be happening now.
I can't speak for GitHub (I'm from the Code School team that built this), but we were very cautious not to introduce too many concepts in that course (you can see below someone saying it's too basic, yes, that's the point), simply the absolute basics we thought people would need to know to understand Git. We also did our best to not introduce Unix concepts, which open another can of worms.
The point is that a very large amount of people working on and around the web today are terrified of the command line. There are plenty of tools that attempt to abstract away the Git command line interface, and our goal with Try Git was not to do that. To give people the real Git experience and try to ease them into it.
I'm sure we can improve it over time to ensure that fewer people "freeze" in front of a command line. You're right that we may need to be more explicit as to what people should do after entering a command, but we need to stay as consistent as possible with the actual command line.
Please feel free to give more feedback, I'll be going through everything that's posted here.
— Olivier Lacan
Re: Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?
#28Nice idea but far too basic. I need a Masterclass Git page.
I guess it was intended to be basic. The idea behind it is that you take 15 minutes and do some basic things and if you like it then you can then learn more about it... I think it's a great starting point. It gives noobs like me a good interactive, hands-on start.
I think this kind of stuff always has focus on basic usage.
Git has inumerous features and inumerous ways to do some of then. It's so much to put in this format.
If you like it and need some more go and read http://git-scm.com/book ... I've learned a lot in this online book.
Re: Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?
#29I really love the idea of sponsored courses/tutorials. This type of thing makes me more likely to use Git and GitHub more, and evangelize more. I have a tough time wanting to pay for a course at a place like code school when I know if I go through the docs/tutorials I'll get it. It's not that I don't think the experience is better, or even (for a certain definition) worth the money. I feel like it is an unnecessary i…
This is beginner-level content, which makes a lot of sense as a free resource. We're working on a Code School "Git Real" course for the end of July that will go much further than this and be at an intermediate level, just like most of the courses we offer through a subscription or individual purchase.
I suggest you check out the first level of that course when it comes out. I doubt you'll think it's an unnecessary indulgence. In the meantime our Node course is good example: http://node.codeschool.com
Re: Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?
#30NOTE: This is not a rant, I'm just trying to give you a peek into my mind as I tried out this tutorial. I'm doing my best to describe my confusion.
I have no clue how to use Git, and I've been trying to wrap my head around it for a while. Unfortunately, this is yet another tutorial that is very frustrating even though it's designed to target noobs like myself.
So, I added octocat.txt to my staging area. Success! ... Wait. Why do I care? What did I do? Staging what, for what? Huh?
I committed some random text. Or something. And I typed "-m". So does "git commit -m 'something random'" actually do something? What did I commit to? Arrrggg. Why did I -m !?
Then there's this one: git commit -m 'Add all the octocat txt files'
So it understands plain English? Was that the random text? Is that just some sample text as part of the Tutorial or does that actually work on Git? Oh man, I'm now more confused than when I started.
...
Anyway, for some reason, everyone who tries to describe Git already has such a strong understanding of it and it's oddities, that they are, for some reason, unable to lay it out properly for a noob IMO. I cannot figure out how anyone figures out Git, I assume there was some serious hand holding, because I'm just not grasping it and I usually "get" this stuff rather quickly. Maybe that's the problem, Git isn't something you can just pick up quickly, maybe I need to buy a huge Git how-to book like the old days.
Sincerely, Frustrated in Programming Land.