GitHub Desktop is now available • Hacker News Board

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#81

Post by Akkuma » Wed, Aug 12, 2015, 4:55 PM UTC

rjv wrote: post #75

I'd love to see more development in the Git GUI space; a GUI really enabled git adoption and comprehension on my team. SourceTree has been my go-to for over a year now and it generally gets the job done, but it can be flakey at times (on Windows) and it seems like Atlassian has taken a hiatus from active development. I hope Atlassian takes up the reins again - this tool is pretty essential for me and I'd be happy to…

Check SmartGit out. I've used it for years and love it.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#82

Post by kitsunesoba » Wed, Aug 12, 2015, 4:59 PM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #32

harel wrote: post #2

Its a shame that a Linux version is not included. A significant volume of developers work on Linux. If doing a multi platform application, why exclude it?

My thoughts exactly. How different from OS X can it be?

The biggest difference is that they'd have to write a new Qt or GTK+ UI.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#83

Post by donatj » Wed, Aug 12, 2015, 5:00 PM UTC

insulanian wrote: post #34

I tried GitHub for Windows but found it a bit dumbed down. Switched over to Atlasian's Source Tree and never looked back.

Source Tree was irritatingly dumbed down. No built in force push because "it could be dangerous". Switched to Tower and never looked back.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#84

Post by cname » Wed, Aug 12, 2015, 5:01 PM UTC

insulanian wrote: post #34

I tried GitHub for Windows but found it a bit dumbed down. Switched over to Atlasian's Source Tree and never looked back.

SourceTree is really nice overall. To name a few things, I prefer its view of history, its hunk selection UI, and its commit message box (GitHub's is tiny and can't be made much bigger). It's also nice that it supports Mercurial.

I had some problems with it keeping changes synced with the file system, though (on Mac OS). E.g., I'd change something in my editor and SourceTree wouldn't pick it up until I reopened the repository in SourceTree.

I also prefer a single window like GitHub's app, but that is a minor annoyance. The non-syncing made SourceTree unusable after a while, and I went back to GitHub for Mac.

I wish Atlassian would put out an update, because I'd prefer to switch back.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#85

Post by StavrosK » Wed, Aug 12, 2015, 5:03 PM UTC

kitsunesoba wrote: post #82

StavrosK wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My thoughts exactly. How different from OS X can it be?

The biggest difference is that they'd have to write a new Qt or GTK+ UI.

What's the UI written in now? Doesn't Qt work for all three platforms?

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#86

Post by MichaelGG » Wed, Aug 12, 2015, 5:04 PM UTC

dcre wrote: post #51

insulanian wrote: post #34

I tried GitHub for Windows but found it a bit dumbed down. Switched over to Atlasian's Source Tree and never looked back.

I use SourceTree full-time but am keeping an eye on GitUp[1]. The UI is not quite there yet IMO, but it's insanely fast and I love the focus on keyboard shortcuts. [1] http://gitup.co/

What in particular do these provide over just using Git Extensions?

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#87

Post by joesmo » Wed, Aug 12, 2015, 5:06 PM UTC

atonse wrote: post #65

JohnTHaller wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Github lives on companies and individuals that pay for private repositories hosted on Github's proprietary (read: not open source) software-as-a-service hosted infrastructure. While git itself is open source, almost nothing else that Github does is open.

I consider these kinds of companies 2nd Generation Open Source companies ... whereas the first generation of open source companies had an open source product and made their money off maintenance, the 2nd gen often have a bunch of components that are developed open source, but sell a closed source glue/package of all those components. Companies like CoreOS, Mesosphere, all fall under this umbrella, where you could tec…

That's a really great summary. It's an interesting alternative way for companies to produce a fair amount of open source contributions and still make money. I can definitely see this with other companies including ones that specialize in continuous integration and other services that developers are interested in.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#88

Post by comboy » Wed, Aug 12, 2015, 5:09 PM UTC

the_ancient wrote: post #79

For Mac or Windows.... it is just insulting that GitHub continues to Treat linux has a second class citizen when with out Linux Git would not be a project...

In their defense, I don't see many linux users choosing GUI app over command line to handle git (unless they have it integrated in their IDE)

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#89

Post by kitsunesoba » Wed, Aug 12, 2015, 5:09 PM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #85

kitsunesoba wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest difference is that they'd have to write a new Qt or GTK+ UI.

What's the UI written in now? Doesn't Qt work for all three platforms?

It's using Cocoa on OS X and WPF on Windows, in other words the UI toolkits that are native to their respective platforms. Qt indeed works everywhere, but by using it you make the tradeoff that your app doesn't really feel native anywhere (except maybe on Linux with KDE).

In short, using Qt would mean making concessions on UI quality.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#90

Post by xd1936 » Wed, Aug 12, 2015, 5:09 PM UTC

koyote wrote: post #50

So does anyone know what they used to build the 'unified' app UI? If I remember rightly they used WPF on Windows in earlier versions. Is the UI now abstracted using a third-party framework/inhouse framework?

If it's using WPF, does that mean that it requires .NET?