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Git Fork: A fast and friendly Git client for Windows and Mac

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Re: Git Fork: A fast and friendly Git client for Windows and Mac

#51

Post by WorldMaker »

DanPristupov wrote: post #46
WorldMaker wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going further afield into tangent, I love the looks of these "subway diagrams" of the commits, but I keep thinking that as great as they look and as nice screenshots as they make what I'd love to see a Git UI do is something very different: take a --first-parent approach by default and use a drilldown/expandable view of commits past first parent. It would look a lot more boring in screenshots, but could be a great wa…

Hi. In Fork you can expand/collapse nodes in the graph. Collapsing all (i.e. --first-parent) and then expanding particular merge commits is also possible.

Good to know. I'm just thinking it might be useful as a default.

I'm also thinking that it's related to that "why didn't Outlook end up using 'subway diagrams'?" question: maybe strict chronological ordering isn't necessarily the best focus for commit ordering with respect to "top-level" merge commits.

Anyway, not a direct criticism of your app specifically, more just a long slow stewing of my own thoughts on the subject that I likely won't ever get around to even prototyping, in case they do congeal into something worth prototyping. You are certainly ahead of me there by having built a thing, and I appreciate that.

Right now I don't think enough people appreciate the idea of --first-parent as a default in as many views as possible (especially as opposed to how many seem to prefer squash/rebase-based workflows solely based on gut reactions to how the "subway diagrams" can look), and I like mentioning that in case it sparks ideas for other people to maybe find workflows that they like more than that (and can take advantage of the 2D nature of the git DAG possibly better than "straight line" approaches).

I'm probably rambling at this point, because yeah I still haven't quite found the right "shape" of this idea and it is interesting to think out loud about it.

Re: Git Fork: A fast and friendly Git client for Windows and Mac

#52

Post by AndrewDucker »

pathartl wrote: post #47
nerdjon wrote: post #28

The UI does look really good, but I do wonder how much of the dev community uses a GUI vs just sticking in the command line? Personally the only GUI stuff I find useful are the features that are already part of VSCode (live showing what I have changed or doing a diff). Outside of that I generally find that any GUI for git just inevitably makes something just opaque enough that I don't really know for sure what I am a…

I work 100% in a git UI. Everything but merge diffs I do in Sourcetree... for diffs I use VS. It's how I've learned. Here's some of my scattered reasoning: - It's a separate, dedicated application to do just my source control - Keeping repos in tabs makes it easy to switch between projects (yes, you could use screen or some other multiplexer, but it's just not as fast for me) - I'm Windows - Easier to review history…

Mostly same here. UI makes life really easy for me.

Re: Git Fork: A fast and friendly Git client for Windows and Mac

#53

Post by DanPristupov »

sathomasga wrote: post #50
bm5k wrote: post #4

This looks neat, but I don’t see anything off hand that will pull me away from my current git tower + kaleidoscope ~rut~ workflow. In particular, the drag & drop rebase support in tower is very convenient. Kaleidoscope is capable of all kinds of diffing but the text conflict resolution is probably the feature that I use the most.

Same reaction. My Tower subscription is up for renewal next month, so I'm primed to give this a try. A cursory look, however, and I find the user interface to be baffling. As one example, on loading the app presents a list of repositories to manage. Select one and you get to interact with that particular repo. But, as far as I can tell, there's no simple way to go back to the repository list to select a different rep…

Press the first button on the toolbar (or use Cmd+P). You can open Repository Manager by opening new tab (Cmd+T).

Re: Git Fork: A fast and friendly Git client for Windows and Mac

#54

Post by DanPristupov »

9erdelta wrote: post #49

Fork is great -- except for when you try and google about it b/c at least for me, I haven't been able to differentiate my queries between the git fork operation and git Fork the UI. Also on my local machine, push to remote gitlab does not work reliably and I have to push via command line. Have not been able to find a solution, but also haven't done more than googling about it.

File -> Accounts -> + -> GitLab should solve the problem. Otherwise, contact me using the feedback button on the toolbar (or by email) and I'll be able help you.

Re: Git Fork: A fast and friendly Git client for Windows and Mac

#55

Post by stuartd »

pathartl wrote: post #47
nerdjon wrote: post #28

The UI does look really good, but I do wonder how much of the dev community uses a GUI vs just sticking in the command line? Personally the only GUI stuff I find useful are the features that are already part of VSCode (live showing what I have changed or doing a diff). Outside of that I generally find that any GUI for git just inevitably makes something just opaque enough that I don't really know for sure what I am a…

I work 100% in a git UI. Everything but merge diffs I do in Sourcetree... for diffs I use VS. It's how I've learned. Here's some of my scattered reasoning: - It's a separate, dedicated application to do just my source control - Keeping repos in tabs makes it easy to switch between projects (yes, you could use screen or some other multiplexer, but it's just not as fast for me) - I'm Windows - Easier to review history…

I like SourceTree’s ‘branch diff’ (and it’s the only thing I use it for).

Re: Git Fork: A fast and friendly Git client for Windows and Mac

#56

Post by robertoandred »

nerdjon wrote: post #28

The UI does look really good, but I do wonder how much of the dev community uses a GUI vs just sticking in the command line? Personally the only GUI stuff I find useful are the features that are already part of VSCode (live showing what I have changed or doing a diff). Outside of that I generally find that any GUI for git just inevitably makes something just opaque enough that I don't really know for sure what I am a…

I find it much easier and faster to stage or unstage files (or parts of files) with a UI.

Re: Git Fork: A fast and friendly Git client for Windows and Mac

#57

Post by lioeters »

I'm a paying user of Fork, it's my favorite Git GUI, I love it.

However, it "only" supports macOS and Windows. I'm migrating to Linux for my work and home computers, so I haven't used Fork in a while, just so I can get familiar with other tools available on Linux - and, importantly, learning to do more advanced Git operations in the terminal.

So far I still depend on a GUI, mainly VS Code's built-in Git integration and the GitGraph extension. (One of the advantages of this setup is that it also works for remote SSH editing.)

https://github.com/mhutchie/vscode-git-graph

Also looking at GitLens: https://www.gitkraken.com/gitlens

..But I sure miss using Fork. I used it everyday for the last couple years. It does everything I want to do with Git, the UI is familiar and well-designed. I whole-heartedly recommend it.

I see the main developer @DanPristupov is on HN, maybe he'd consider supporting Linux? I totally understand if you won't, since creating the same application for two OSes must be quite difficult already, especially for a small team rather than a company.

Re: Git Fork: A fast and friendly Git client for Windows and Mac

#58

Post by sdflhasjd »

zacwest wrote: post #7

Fork is the only GUI in Mac performant enough to handle my work monorepo. That alone would be sufficient, but it's also a stellar client with great support for things like interactively rebasing and handling merges. I can do roughly everything I need, faster, in its UI.

I'd love to know why Fork is so much faster than every other git GUI client I've used.

Re: Git Fork: A fast and friendly Git client for Windows and Mac

#59

Post by sathomasga »

DanPristupov wrote: post #53
sathomasga wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same reaction. My Tower subscription is up for renewal next month, so I'm primed to give this a try. A cursory look, however, and I find the user interface to be baffling. As one example, on loading the app presents a list of repositories to manage. Select one and you get to interact with that particular repo. But, as far as I can tell, there's no simple way to go back to the repository list to select a different rep…

Press the first button on the toolbar (or use Cmd+P). You can open Repository Manager by opening new tab (Cmd+T).

I merely cited this as one example of a confusing UI, but this response makes my point even stronger. For most applications, the normal user flow is from general (what the app calls Repository Manager, I guess) to specific (a particular repository). Well-designed user interfaces anticipate the typical user flow and give the user a chance to "go back." For example, a user may accidentally click on the wrong repository. That user likely wants to return the app to its previous state so as to make the correct choice.

Neither of these steps really does that. The first opens a command palette which does not have anything resembling a "go back" command. It does list "Recent Repositories," but there is no reason for a user to assume that "Recent" is the same as All the repositories listed on the first screen. The command palette also omits the folder hierarchy present on the first screen, and that hierarchy may be key to finding the desired repo. Opening a new tab is not at all intuitive for a user that wants to go back. And the most obvious result of the command is a new blank screen.

There a lots of things about Fork that look to be very well-done, and it appears to have a great feature set. But if I'm going to use a GUI instead of the command line for git, then I expect the app to be intuitive and easy to use. For me, Fork is not that. I appreciate that other users may have different opinions, and I do wish the developers great success with the project.

Re: Git Fork: A fast and friendly Git client for Windows and Mac

#60

Post by frogperson »

zacwest wrote: post #7

Fork is the only GUI in Mac performant enough to handle my work monorepo. That alone would be sufficient, but it's also a stellar client with great support for things like interactively rebasing and handling merges. I can do roughly everything I need, faster, in its UI.

The fastest gui client I know of is gitup (gitup.co). Have you tried it? How does it compare to Fork?
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