Word. I have a theory that while git has completely taken over the software industry and most users can "get shit done" with it, very few of them actually understand what the fuck is going on. All those "simple explanations" are really nice theoretical pieces about the merits and design of git itself and most of the time tend to completely ignore (or dodge) the clusterfuck that every day git can be, especially for people starting up with it.
I'm talking about the botched merges, the hour-long rebases with 156 git rebase --skip, the "your branches have diverged" mysteries, the subtle differences between fetch and pull, the fact that all the GUI I've seen so far, far from being a tool, are actually complicating the task with their own little syntax.
If the underlying data structure is so beautiful, then how come there's no UI where I can simply drag branches around, have an actual "OOPS, MISTAKE, LET ME UNDO" button, reorder my commits with the mouse, something that holds my hand and actually cares about ALL git users, not the 1% connoisseur elite?
Don't get me wrong, I have zero doubt that git is in fact an absolutely great tool with a very intelligent design and that the users are to blame for not understanding it, I'm just thinking that if after more than 5 years of git-as-a-dominant-dvcs I keep seeing the same puzzled faces looking at a series of SHA-1 like it's the answer to the universe over and over again, there's something that's not quite right.
That being said, this is indeed one of the most comprehensive articles I've ever read about git.
While I agree with some of your criticisms, as the resident 'Git guy', I've found no difficulty in explaining to people that pull is a convenience alias for 'fetch followed by merge'.
True, but to understand that you also need to understand what fetch and merge do respectively. Not so easy for the profane/beginner. You're correct that this one is a bit of dishonesty on my part though :)
I'm talking about the botched merges, the hour-long rebases with 156 git rebase --skip, the "your branches have diverged" mysteries, the subtle differences between fetch and pull, the fact that all the GUI I've seen so far, far from being a tool, are actually complicating the task with their own little syntax.
If the underlying data structure is so beautiful, then how come there's no UI where I can simply drag branches around, have an actual "OOPS, MISTAKE, LET ME UNDO" button, reorder my commits with the mouse, something that holds my hand and actually cares about ALL git users, not the 1% connoisseur elite?
Don't get me wrong, I have zero doubt that git is in fact an absolutely great tool with a very intelligent design and that the users are to blame for not understanding it, I'm just thinking that if after more than 5 years of git-as-a-dominant-dvcs I keep seeing the same puzzled faces looking at a series of SHA-1 like it's the answer to the universe over and over again, there's something that's not quite right.
That being said, this is indeed one of the most comprehensive articles I've ever read about git.