Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git? • Hacker News Board

Re: Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?

#101

Post by Trufa » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 9:14 PM UTC

wonnage wrote: post #91

envex wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Learning everything about git is hard, but learning enough git to use personally isn't that hard. I use git personally to keep backups of my code and deploy sites I work on. I dont' work with other developers so my knowledge of git is workable, but probably super small. Git gets complicated (but probably extremely useful) when working with bigger groups and tons of commits, branches and merges.

I feel like there's not much point in any sort of VCS lesson if it doesn't go over the more complex areas though. For example, reverting commits and resetting to earlier points in history are pretty essential actions, but both have their subtleties in Git (e.g why reverting a merge is hard, what 'reset' vs 'checkout' do) that will bite you if you don't know what you're doing. And everyone's fucked up via git rebase a…

I disagree, I use the very basics of Git for my very small one man projects and was very happy about it! But it just so happened that some have grown to two or three man projects that benefited greatly of actually having a distributed system already setup, this wouldn't have happened if I would have been using the wrong tools! Git is quite easy to use a at a basic level and you know it will scale just as much as you probably need, I have no idea which of my projects will grow and how big, but I do know that using the right tools from the very beginning will not come back to bite me later!

Re: Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?

#102

Post by tdonaghe » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 9:39 PM UTC

fiveseven wrote: post #93

tdonaghe wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm having the same problem. Other people are complaining about this in their support forums. Doesn't speak too highly of Code School in general.

@tdonaghe - we have fixed all the lag issues (in less than 15m no less). So not sure 20 minutes of sub-optimal experience justifies your comment. Hope you stick around to learn more! :)

I take back my complaint. :)

I just finished the course.

Great job guys!

Re: Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?

#103

Post by CrLf » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 9:42 PM UTC

philwelch wrote: post #57

dpcan wrote: post #30

NOTE: 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! ...…

I figured out Git, and I'm not that clever, so don't worry! The staging area (aka the index) is where you put things before they become a commit. You don't always want to commit all of your changes at once. The index is there so you can commit the changes you want instead of just committing all the changes every time. `git commit` means "turn the contents of the index into a commit". A commit is a set of changes that…

That doesn't explain the fundamental part. Why is there a staging area in the first place?

Place yourself in the shoes of a subversion user, the workflow is very simple and intuitive given that:

  1. the repository is a (remote) place where my project is stored
  2. the local copy is where I modify my project

Then, a commit is just pushing your modifications to the repository where other people can go get them.

Now, with git you don't have a remote repository. Your local copy is itself a repository. Think about this for a second. Then...

If a commit doesn't push my changes to a remote repository, why do I care?

Well, if a commit allows me to have a local history of changes that I may not want to have in the remote repository, why do I need to stage my changes? Why don't I just commit them and be done with that? Isn't the files themselves a stagind area? Isn't this all redundant?

These are the problems a non-Git user faces. Why do I care about this complexity? In what whay does this make the process of making my changes accessible to others easier?

Answer: it doesn't.

Regular people are usually perfectly happy with their other VCS solutions. The ones that want them to see the light and start using Git for all its benefits must thing about what makes Git useful and explain that.

It doesn't matter that Git is important for large distributed projects. Most people aren't a part of large distributed projects.

No tutorial that I can remember does this. Not a single one.

Re: Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?

#104

Post by gaoshan » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 9:44 PM UTC

Basic Git is easy. This intro is basic. Just be aware that it can get much more complicated and the answers to how to do it may or may not be readily available via Google.

This guide is like starting the "Couch to 5K" fitness program but knowing that, if you stick with it, eventually you will have to compete in a marathon.

Re: Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?

#105

Post by ojjop » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 9:45 PM UTC

Does not work with Opera.

Re: Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?

#106

Post by radnor » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 9:46 PM UTC

forrestthewoods wrote: post #81

Can we please stop pretending that Git is simple and easy to learn? If that were true then there wouldn't be "Learn how to use Git in minutes!" posts every other day. The fact of the matter is that Git is incredibly powerful but also complex and hard to learn. This isn't a bash on Git at all. It's ok! Sometimes complicated things are just that, complicated. I believe we'll have better guides and tutorials if people s…

I used to be like you. I didn't understand git and had no real reason to - I was used to using things like TFS and Vault just fine at work. Then a friend of mine got a job with Github and I suddenly had a reason to care about git. Once I had a reason to learn I found it much easier to understand and use, and now I've even started using tfs-git at work for fun.

So if you find git is hard or confusing just become friends with someone at github. ;)

Re: Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?

#107

Post by opminion » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 9:55 PM UTC

dpcan wrote: post #30

NOTE: 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! ...…

Perhaps what's missing in Git is a good metaphor.

Re: Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?

#108

Post by forrestthewoods » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 10:02 PM UTC

amix wrote: post #100

forrestthewoods wrote: post #81

Can we please stop pretending that Git is simple and easy to learn? If that were true then there wouldn't be "Learn how to use Git in minutes!" posts every other day. The fact of the matter is that Git is incredibly powerful but also complex and hard to learn. This isn't a bash on Git at all. It's ok! Sometimes complicated things are just that, complicated. I believe we'll have better guides and tutorials if people s…

I haven't read any books or longer tutorials on Git. I find it easy to use and if I run into trouble I just Google after help (which happens a few times a week). Throughout the day I mostly use 9 Git commands. Here are the top 9 commands I use: git checkout X git checkout -b new-branch git commit git add; git mv; git rm; git pull --rebase git rebase origin/master git push origin X I have used this for a long time wit…

Everything you just said is exactly why Git is not simple and can not be learned in 15 minutes. Just by operating from the command line you've already left the realm of "simple" in my opinion. Having to learn 9 commands is not simple. Having to hit Google for help multiple times per week is not simple.

I strongly, strongly disagree with your assertion that "for simple cases Git is really simple to use and to learn". I've watched many programmers, artists, and designers who have used source control struggle with Git from day 1. I'm sorry, it's just not simple and if it were this topic wouldn't come up over and over and over.

Again, I say none of this as a slight to Git. Complicated things are complicated. That's ok, but pretending they aren't isn't helpful.

Re: Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?

#109

Post by phleet » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 10:08 PM UTC

forrestthewoods wrote: post #81

Can we please stop pretending that Git is simple and easy to learn? If that were true then there wouldn't be "Learn how to use Git in minutes!" posts every other day. The fact of the matter is that Git is incredibly powerful but also complex and hard to learn. This isn't a bash on Git at all. It's ok! Sometimes complicated things are just that, complicated. I believe we'll have better guides and tutorials if people s…

Pro Git does a really good job of explaining everything you need to know about git without trying to do it really quickly.

After reading it, I have a much better understand of git, and can work myself (and others) out of pretty much any oh-my-god-I-destroyed-everything problem I run across. You haven't broken stuff for real until you need to use git reflog.

Link to book, free to read online: http://git-scm.com/book/

Re: Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?

#110

Post by FrojoS » Wed, Jul 04, 2012, 10:11 PM UTC

petercooper wrote: post #94

dpcan wrote: post #30

NOTE: 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! ...…

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. This is a common problem in teaching, technical writing, and other forms of technical instruction. Even when a good teacher or writer sets out to deliver material to total beginners, it's very tricky to truly enter th…

I think one way to improve this situation is to focus on results and casually use features and techniques along the way rather than focus on features and techniques and have contrived examples to show off them off.

Yes, exactly! You have to start with examples. Real problems and then suggest solutions. Too many teachers, I'd say the majority, start from the abstract explanation and only bring in the example in the end -if at all.