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Sort branches by last commit date

ryangreenberg.com

51–56 of 56 posts

Re: Sort branches by last commit date

#51
I have to make a confession. I've been using different version control system for the last 25 years, but everytime I'm doing anything more complicated than basic commit/push I feel absolutely overwhelmed and terrified that I'm about to break something.

Re: Sort branches by last commit date

#52
Sometimes I’m amazed anyone is willing to live without a git ui. The graph structure git uses is just such a natural fit for visual processing, plus the default git ux is borderline user-hostile until you master it.

What’s also funny is that early in my career I could tell other engineers looked down on me for using a git UI, perhaps assuming I was too stupid to use the terminal. I suspect that this mindset propagates git use to the next generation.

Re: Sort branches by last commit date

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even better, "hey, chat GPT, list my branches by commit date." I know that's not a popular answer, but I'm just trying to demonstrate the reality that this kind of knowledge isn't specialized anymore.

What makes knowledge "specialized" to you? Most devs use git. Even better than ChatGPT is just doing the thing on reflex. Not every manual step is necessarily a tedious chore nor even slower when you actually know what you're doing. I'm not saying this out of hubris, but there's no man vs machine story here when the machine needs babysitting and is still worse at everything. Nobody is resisting AI at this point. We j…

It's not worse than the man. It's better. You're just trying to protect your ego. It's ridiculous.

Re: Sort branches by last commit date

#54
post #2

Even better (IMHO!) is `git config branch.sort -committerdate` (note the `-`). This will sort newest committer date first.

Even better, "hey, chat GPT, list my branches by commit date." I know that's not a popular answer, but I'm just trying to demonstrate the reality that this kind of knowledge isn't specialized anymore.

It's still specialized, but looking it up has gotten easier. It's better to use the right tool for the job. What's next, are you gonna tell ChatGPT to list your files too?

Re: Sort branches by last commit date

#55
post #52

Sometimes I’m amazed anyone is willing to live without a git ui. The graph structure git uses is just such a natural fit for visual processing, plus the default git ux is borderline user-hostile until you master it. What’s also funny is that early in my career I could tell other engineers looked down on me for using a git UI, perhaps assuming I was too stupid to use the terminal. I suspect that this mindset propagate…

Well, it's a fit for visual processing only in simple cases. If your graph looks like spaghetti, you need other ways to think about it. If the `git log --oneline --graph` view (or whatever options trigger it) is not good enough, then a full-blown GUI won't do it for me either.

Re: Sort branches by last commit date

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes knowledge "specialized" to you? Most devs use git. Even better than ChatGPT is just doing the thing on reflex. Not every manual step is necessarily a tedious chore nor even slower when you actually know what you're doing. I'm not saying this out of hubris, but there's no man vs machine story here when the machine needs babysitting and is still worse at everything. Nobody is resisting AI at this point. We j…

It's not worse than the man. It's better. You're just trying to protect your ego. It's ridiculous.

I'm fairly certain that at least half of the people commenting (and all of the people who downvoted you) have over a decade of git muscle memory in their fingers. That's far faster than asking AI, and sometimes probably even faster than their terminal can print.

I promise you nobody is trying to show off. Git's CLI is notoriously inconsistent and verbose, and every GUI for it is always missing a ton of relevant features because it was designed for someone else's itch.

Now we have people like you trying to wedge AI into the discussion. I'm sorry dude. There's nothing to argue here. Git is the most important tool we have as developers. It's worth learning because the whole point is precise changes. We put up with the bad interfaces because it's otherwise just that good.

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