(As an aside, I sometimes feel the same way about node.js, where I've seen "node.js is awesome" listed among a project's "features." Nothing against it, I just don't get the obsession.)
I appreciate this comment with respect to Git right now. I've recently spent a lot of "hammock time" trying to come to grips with my views about this profession generally and what I believe is best going forward. One thing I feel strongly about is that while we are still maturing as a field, the pain points are unacceptable. There is still so much work to offload to the machine, requiring fundamental rethinking at many levels. So although I agree in principle with the initiative to help people "learn to code" (so that we can bring system design closer to the domain experts), I also believe that in the current state of things, it's a wasteful effort, since it requires conveyance of ideas that should be deprecated.
But even short of programming, version control alone would be useful in so many other fields. There's no reason why it shouldn't be a mainstream concept even for personal use (e.g., you're working on a thesis). Just an hour ago, during my annual flirtation with Git (I'm a Mercurial user), I wrote in my notes:
> the barrier to entry for new programmers is important. This would appear to weigh in favor of Mercurial — and yet, realistically, is a “layman,” i.e. someone who knows nothing about software development and has never used a CLI, really going to distinguish between these two systems, or will the very concepts of a VCS not prove to be the biggest hurdle?
I have used Git, and I think that for linear history the differences are not remarkable. But the attitude you refer to is crucial: do we want to hide complexity or expose it?
Incidentally, I have several Project Gutenberg epubs under version control for a personal project, and like the OP I attest that their work is first-rate. There's no comparison to any other digitizer in the public domain (that I know of).
I appreciate this comment with respect to Git right now. I've recently spent a lot of "hammock time" trying to come to grips with my views about this profession generally and what I believe is best going forward. One thing I feel strongly about is that while we are still maturing as a field, the pain points are unacceptable. There is still so much work to offload to the machine, requiring fundamental rethinking at many levels. So although I agree in principle with the initiative to help people "learn to code" (so that we can bring system design closer to the domain experts), I also believe that in the current state of things, it's a wasteful effort, since it requires conveyance of ideas that should be deprecated.
But even short of programming, version control alone would be useful in so many other fields. There's no reason why it shouldn't be a mainstream concept even for personal use (e.g., you're working on a thesis). Just an hour ago, during my annual flirtation with Git (I'm a Mercurial user), I wrote in my notes:
> the barrier to entry for new programmers is important. This would appear to weigh in favor of Mercurial — and yet, realistically, is a “layman,” i.e. someone who knows nothing about software development and has never used a CLI, really going to distinguish between these two systems, or will the very concepts of a VCS not prove to be the biggest hurdle?
I have used Git, and I think that for linear history the differences are not remarkable. But the attitude you refer to is crucial: do we want to hide complexity or expose it?
Incidentally, I have several Project Gutenberg epubs under version control for a personal project, and like the OP I attest that their work is first-rate. There's no comparison to any other digitizer in the public domain (that I know of).