> You can probably get 90-95% of the benefit of git using mercurial with a fraction of the effort in learning.
You absolutely cannot.
Even if we pretend that Mercurial is simply outright better than Git, there's a lot of value in learning Git specifically, as it's what most development teams use. Employers value proficiency in Git. If you mention your Mercurial proficiency in an interview, it's likely to be scored up as cute but irrelevant.
If you always work alone, sure, Mercurial might work great for you, but the real value of these version-control systems is in enabling teams to work effectively. Most teams these days use Git, so you need to know Git.
(Of course, if your team does use Mercurial, you'd better become proficient in Mercurial.)
> Life is too short to spend learning the internals of one version control system.
I agree that learning the intimate internals of Git's codebase isn't something that's likely to pay off in the day job, but short of that, Git's 'useful skill-ceiling' is pretty high.
> Don't waste your non-work time on learning computing related stuff and instead spend time on social connections and physical fitness first.
Depends on your working situation. If your work offers no opportunity to learn new skills, and you don't want your CV to get stale, you have little choice.
>there's a lot of value in learning Git specifically, as it's what most development teams use. Employers value proficiency in Git. If you mention your Mercurial proficiency in an interview, it's likely to be scored up as cute but irrelevant.
Given that the person I was responding to was advocating not spending time on things for the reason that employers are looking for them, and is advocating things almost no workplace uses, I find your comment strange. Perhaps you should be responding to the comment I'm responding to?
>Depends on your working situation. If your work offers no opportunity to learn new skills, and you don't want your CV to get stale, you have little choice.
You do have a choice, and you made your choice. In the US, in this era, SW professionals are near the top when it comes to freedom to change jobs and change locations. When I know several people who make half of what I do, are relatively unskilled, and have to work much longer hours than I do, who made a very clear choice in favor of physical fitness and social relations, I am not going to claim I don't have a choice.
Having said that, this is all orthogonal to my point, which was how easy it is to make (reasonable) lists of things one should focus on that are almost exclusive to one another.
After programming for 50 years and having a successful career, I’m not really going to need serious git skills. I still write code, all the time, but it’s for fun and personal projects.
Yes Mercurial is easier to use than git, and really fossil is even better for me, someone that works solo. However git is what I use. I know that if I am going to help someone with source code control (like my daughter who is studying CS) git is what they will need help with. Personal use of git is to me the only way to ensure that I can give pertinent help.
You absolutely cannot.
Even if we pretend that Mercurial is simply outright better than Git, there's a lot of value in learning Git specifically, as it's what most development teams use. Employers value proficiency in Git. If you mention your Mercurial proficiency in an interview, it's likely to be scored up as cute but irrelevant.
If you always work alone, sure, Mercurial might work great for you, but the real value of these version-control systems is in enabling teams to work effectively. Most teams these days use Git, so you need to know Git.
(Of course, if your team does use Mercurial, you'd better become proficient in Mercurial.)
> Life is too short to spend learning the internals of one version control system.
I agree that learning the intimate internals of Git's codebase isn't something that's likely to pay off in the day job, but short of that, Git's 'useful skill-ceiling' is pretty high.
> Don't waste your non-work time on learning computing related stuff and instead spend time on social connections and physical fitness first.
Depends on your working situation. If your work offers no opportunity to learn new skills, and you don't want your CV to get stale, you have little choice.