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Visualizing Git Concepts with D3.js

wei-wang.com

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Re: Visualizing Git Concepts with D3.js

#11

Post by zhodge »

lalos wrote: post #6

This is great for teaching git, a nice add-on to the tool would be to add command by command playback of custom scenarios and see them pan out. Also it would be interesting to grab tons of different history records from developers' shells and get common git patterns and play them back with this tool.

In addition to this, I think something that would help me a lot is being able to step back and forward through any history of commands that I'm experimenting with.

Great stuff!

Re: Visualizing Git Concepts with D3.js

#12

Post by cfolgar »

After having seen a few learn-git tools on HN and other programming forums, I would have to say that this is my personal favorite. What this tool does exceptionally well is teach the core git concepts from a visual point (seeing as it's git this works very naturally) instead of asking the user to memorize an incredibly small subset of the git commands. Often this leads to a lot of trouble when you get into a real-world scenario that some inappropriate learn git tutorial didn't cover. Fortunately, I think visualization tools like this should help ;) Perhaps github could incorporate this into their Try Git page?

Re: Visualizing Git Concepts with D3.js

#15

Post by jonalmeida »

This is great, kudos to the dev!

Like others who wished they had this while teaching git, I wish I had this while learning git.

However, the interaction seems a bit clunky - after doing a `git fetch` I wanted to try a `git rebase` but realized I had to click on the `git rebase` option first before typing it out. Maybe remove the need to click the option first OR clicking it will automatically type stuff for you. Basically, it's a two step process that once needs one.

Re: Visualizing Git Concepts with D3.js

#18

Post by scrollaway »

robbles wrote: post #8

This is really cool - I wish I'd had this for teaching git a few weeks ago. FYI - it looks like branch creation is broken. Creating a branch and following with `git commit` gives the error "Not a good idea to make commits while in a detached HEAD state." It's not a detached HEAD, it's a branch.

Purely anecdotal feedback coming up.

This is somewhat old (like at least a year old I think). I've been using git for a pretty long time but as my main usage was on solo projects I was not at all making use of branches, rebasing and so on. I knew the concepts though but the entire thing was still a mix grey cloud for me up until a few months ago; even though I've had previous experience dealing with git internals (libgit and libgit2). I saw this site before and I thought it was very cool but it was not teaching me anything new. Although everything seems clear and simple, it is a representation I simply could not wrap my head around. It's like when you learn a new language: I know "libro" means "book" in spanish but I cannot associate it with the concept of a book, until I move to spain and speak the language.

Then I got my new job. New git workflow and I had to use branches and rebasing in the field on an hourly basis. And ever since, everything clicked. Now that I see this link again, it is not only clear, it feels like I speak the language.

All in all, I think this is a great piece of work, but pedagogically speaking, I think of it more as a visual cue to pair with the git actions when you do them than something to rely on.

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