GitHub Desktop is now available • Hacker News Board

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#91

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

kitsunesoba wrote: post #89

StavrosK wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Hmm, weird, I thought Qt was pretty good at the native look and feel. Thanks for the info!

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#92

Post by lewisl9029 » Wed, Aug 12, 2015, 5:12 PM UTC

I've been using the beta for a while and have found it to be quite nice.

Simple operations are quick and intuitive. If you need anything more advanced, a git shell for the current project is just 2 clicks away.

Having all the visual diffs readily available in the client before committing is quite convenient, as is being able to push your branch and open a pull request for it at the press of a button.

I'm hoping issues and PR management is next on the plate. You can open PRs from the client right now, but to review and merge them you'd still need to open a browser.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#93

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

arrmn wrote: post #71

grandalf wrote: post #35

Github probably considers the "depth" of git use by the average user to be one of its KPIs. Git is extremely powerful, if you are only doing checkouts and commits you are under-utilizing the tool and also underutilizing the service. So it's smart for Github to build tools that lower the bar for a) understanding git, and b) using git's more powerful features. Useful metrics would be things like the percentage of users…

I'm a beginner here so sorry for if it's a stupid question. I work with GitFlow and the only things I use are commits and checkouts, but for what do you use Git? About which powerful features are you talking about, does anyone have a link with some more in depth informations?

Some features I use: Cherry-picking commits across branches. Merging branches. Rebases for forward-porting your work onto a new upstream. Bisects for determining which commit introduced a bug. Push/pull for sharing. Format-patch for sending patches around. Submodules.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#94

Post by thruflo » Wed, Aug 12, 2015, 5:14 PM UTC

MNOLJNDRDY wrote: post #55

Bulk70 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm very comfortable with the command line in general already, and if I have to I can use git on the command line. I've just always felt a GUI is the best interface for git - personal preference I suppose. I'm a very visual person when it comes to code, and being able to see a nice history/diff etc inline with a few clicks just sits better with how I view the world & my ideal workflow. I appreciate I'm probably in th…

Exactly, I feel the same. By default, git commit just shows me "M /src/foo/whatever", I prefer to use a GUI where I can then click on that and it shows me a nice fullscreen visual diff with colour highlighting etc. Just works a lot better for me in being productive and reviewing things before I commit(an essential part of any workflow)

Try `git add -p`

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#95

Post by macco » Wed, Aug 12, 2015, 5:15 PM UTC

Bulk70 wrote: post #4

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?

As strange as it sounds the lack of a decent git GUI is one of the reasons I don't feel comfortable using Linux as my main development environment (not the only reason of course). It's a big pitty neither Github nor Atlassian (the big "git" players, in my mind) seem inclined to release a GUI client for Linux.

There are several GUIs for git on Linux. GitG comes to mind. But there are several others - also with github integration.

https://git-scm.com/download/gui/linux

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#96

Post by barnacs » Wed, Aug 12, 2015, 5:16 PM UTC

JeremyMorgan wrote: post #28

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?

It's likely they felt it's not worth the time since most Linux users are using the CLI for everything else, and likely wouldn't be interested in a GUI. Personally I've never used the Github GUI and have no plans to, running the commands is fast and easy.

But it's not about git itself. Issues, PR comments, the wiki and such things make github what is. Personally, I'd prefer a nice graphical desktop app to handle these, and either have a terminal embedded or run it alongside the gui to handle the git commands.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#97

Post by cryon » Wed, Aug 12, 2015, 5:16 PM UTC

MNOLJNDRDY wrote: post #60

AndrewDucker wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course they are. The people who aren't comfortable enough using a CLI stay clear of Linux.

I think that's a poor excuse for not having a linux version. By that logic, we wouldn't have sublime because vim/emacs should be enough. As I see it, the main reason I like to use linux on my development boxes is flexibility(or call it freedom if you want, I don't like doing so). I can do things in whatever way works best for me and I can create scripts/install packages to glue stuff together fairly easily to adapt t…

I never said anything about removing existing software (such as sublime). I was talking about there being less incentive to create a git gui for a user base that is - from my experience - happy with the current cli interface or any other already existing client (such as magit for emacs).

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#98

Post by tychuz » Wed, Aug 12, 2015, 5:22 PM UTC

It has been out for a while (I guess in beta form), atleast for Windows.

Still using GitExtensions. This has a nice interface for hobby projects, but when working with "enterprise" huge projects at work - it lags noticeably.

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#99

Post by rcarmo » Wed, Aug 12, 2015, 5:25 PM UTC

There's an UX/affordance issue with merges.

Took me a while to figure out how do do them via the UI, it's not immediately obvious that the side pane (which tries to take you to the web site for submitting pull requests) has nothing to do with local merges, which are now accomplished via an option that only appears when you're comparing branches (on the new timeline/graph thingy).

Re: GitHub Desktop is now available

#100

Post by rcarmo » Wed, Aug 12, 2015, 5:28 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.

Having used both on a Mac (where I mostly end up using the CLI anyway), I'd say that SourceTree is what you want to use for stuff like code review, whereas GitHub (other than local merges being hard to figure out - see my other comment) is quite neat and uncluttered - perfect for small projects or if your workflow revolves around their public repos.

(I don't see why this is being modded down - is it because I failed to mention I'm also using it in Windows?)