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Git concepts simplified

gitolite.com

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Re: Git concepts simplified

#11

Post by jlgreco »

dcre wrote: post #2

I love Git, but I'm pretty sure there's no way to explain it simply.

I don't get this attitude. The DAG is exceedingly simple and I think can be taught reasonably in only a few minutes. From there you really only need to teach a very minor amount of the UI, and teach the user how to perform "I want to do this to the DAG"=>"This is what I type" translations on their own. I've seen all of this done well in sub-hour presentations.

Mercurial on the other hand has a pain in the ass datamodel (so much so that most introductions to it that I have seen do not even approach the topic), so you actually do have to learn all of the UI commands to get an idea of what can be done and what cannot be done. It is far more complex than git.

I really cannot think of a simpler VCS than git. I've used plenty, but never got off the ground faster with anything else.

Re: Git concepts simplified

#12

Post by jlgreco »

tootie wrote: post #8

There is an inverse relationship the number articles title "x explained simply" and the actual simplicity of x. I honestly don't understand why the developer community refuses to admit the obvious that git is unholy clusterfuck of a product. It has a nice data structure inside it? Name another end-user product for which you are even vaguely aware of what data structures were used.

> Name another end-user product for which you are even vaguely aware of what data structures were used.

Unix.

You are operating primarily on a tree of files and streams of text. To operate on these you have a wide array of utilities that perform simple tasks (and a handful that perform complex tasks as well) that, when composed, allow you to perform any transformation you want. You can get a freshman CS student off the ground with Unix like systems in what, one lecture?

Because the (bleedingly simple) data model is the focus when learning Unix, you don't need to memorize every single little edgecase of the system. Knowledge of the data model alone is enough to tell you what sort of things can or cannot be done, and general knowledge of the sort of thing that a few utilities do is enough bootstrap yourself. If you want to list out some files in some particular way, you may not know immediately what exactly to type, but you probably do know that ls or find is a decent place to start looking.

Re: Git concepts simplified

#13

Post by jheriko »

a lot of this is generally (d)vcs and applies equally to mercurial or even svn...

also if you think x pages of anything is a simple explanation then you missed a trick or two.

e.g if you have to explain why your arrows are pointing backwards you are doing it wrong, instead of using the standard notation for graphs and lists and stuff which are not generally well known, use what most people will understand on inspection.

Re: Git concepts simplified

#14

Post by jheriko »

dcre wrote: post #2

I love Git, but I'm pretty sure there's no way to explain it simply.

really? its not that complicated, it just has lots of bad defaults in my experience

(i use mercurial when i start new projects, not because its fundamentally better - but because it has sensible defaults and i don't need to configure it our get bitten by gotcha x for the nth time - e.g. i can revert a merge without reading a document or configuring anything - a vital feature of source control imo)

Re: Git concepts simplified

#16

Post by th3dude »

develop7 wrote: post #15
aeon10 wrote: post #3

There seems to be ALOT of 'Git Explained' stuff. The best way to learn Git in my opinion is start using it! Google stuff as you go.

> Google stuff as you go. Are you implying git man pages are useless to newcomer?

Useless? No. Overwhelming at times? Absolutely.

I think that Google is probably the best way to go, because not only will you get the man pages as high ranking hits, but you'll also get great hits from sites like StackOverflow and blogs that can explain things better.

Re: Git concepts simplified

#19

Post by zwieback »

aeon10 wrote: post #3

There seems to be ALOT of 'Git Explained' stuff. The best way to learn Git in my opinion is start using it! Google stuff as you go.

True, but even after travelling along the RCS->VSS->CVS->SVN graph for the past 20 years I still find git baffling sometimes. I like it but the question is whether I want to invest my brain resources, which are a scarce resource at age 47, in learning a revision control system that can drive you into a cul-de-sac when using even the most basic workflow.

I think git!=simple but I applaud the effort.

Re: Git concepts simplified

#20

Post by WestCoastJustin »

Gitolite (where this is hosted) is actually pretty cool too. For those who don't know what gitolite is, it is software to works in tandem with git-daemon, that basically allows you to run a centralized git sever with access rules.

I created a screencast about it @ http://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/11-internal-git-server-wit...

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