4 ms·

A book about Git, hosted on Github

38 points by raganwald 16y ago

tzs 16y ago
That's a fairly nice book, but has a couple of errors. For example: "The major difference between Git and any other VCS (Subversion and friends included) is the way Git thinks about its data. Conceptually, most other systems store information as a list of file-based changes." ... "Git doesn’t think of or store its data this way. Instead, Git thinks of its data more like a set of snapshots of a mini filesystem." I'd say he's got that completely wrong as far as Subversion goes. From a conceptual point of view, the easiest way to think of Subversion is in fact as a snapshotted file system. Here's how I used to explain Subversion to people when we moved from CVS to Subversion. 1. Think of it as a special filesystem. It's much like a Samba filesystem, in that it's stored on a server. However, instead of mounting it on your desktop, you access it through the svn command. You can copy stuff from it and to it. 2. What's special about it is that (a) changes are atomic, (b) copying is cheap in terms of time and space, and (c) special IT fairies watch over it, and whenever you make a change they first make a snapshot of the pre-changed filesystem. Most svn commands let you refer to those snapshots. Sure, Subversion doesn't actually STORE the repository as some kind of snapshotting filesystem, but it makes it look like one as far as the user is concerned.
- igorgue 16y ago
  I think he's referring data as "content of the files", since Git tracks content not files as Subversion or CVS do. This is what Linus refer to as a "stupid content tracker" because Git tracks content changes not file changes.
- pjhyett 16y ago
  SVN: file-based, delta-storage Git: content-based, snapshot-storage The systems are completely different.
  - tzs 16y ago
    Yes, under the hood (although the distinction between file-based and content-based doesn't seem to be all the important from the conceptual model point of view--you generally access the content of blobs in Git via file-based interfaces). The point is he's talking about how the systems appear conceptually. Conceptually the model that best describes Subversion from a user point of view is a file system that stores a snapshot of all prior states of the filesystem.
duck 16y ago
Dup - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=726023 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=726023
Another1 16y ago
http://progit.org/book/ http://progit.org/book/
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
d0m 16y ago
I've read this book last summer to learn git and I pretty enjoyed it. Mainly because it's succinct and because the author does a wonderful job explaining why he really like git. However, I don't get why it's on HN front page...?
piers 16y ago
http://github.com/schacon/git-reference http://github.com/schacon/git-reference An HTML version(ish) of the book
ss3329 16y ago
Jordan Shoes. We wholesale shoes: Nike running shoes, Air Jordan, Clothing, Bag, Nike dunks, Air force ones and more.

38 points by raganwald 16y ago

tzs 16y ago

That's a fairly nice book, but has a couple of errors. For example: "The major difference between Git and any other VCS (Subversion and friends included) is the way Git thinks about its data. Conceptually, most other systems store information as a list of file-based changes." ... "Git doesn’t think of or store its data this way. Instead, Git thinks of its data more like a set of snapshots of a mini filesystem." I'd say he's got that completely wrong as far as Subversion goes. From a conceptual point of view, the easiest way to think of Subversion is in fact as a snapshotted file system. Here's how I used to explain Subversion to people when we moved from CVS to Subversion. 1. Think of it as a special filesystem. It's much like a Samba filesystem, in that it's stored on a server. However, instead of mounting it on your desktop, you access it through the svn command. You can copy stuff from it and to it. 2. What's special about it is that (a) changes are atomic, (b) copying is cheap in terms of time and space, and (c) special IT fairies watch over it, and whenever you make a change they first make a snapshot of the pre-changed filesystem. Most svn commands let you refer to those snapshots. Sure, Subversion doesn't actually STORE the repository as some kind of snapshotting filesystem, but it makes it look like one as far as the user is concerned.

igorgue 16y ago
I think he's referring data as "content of the files", since Git tracks content not files as Subversion or CVS do. This is what Linus refer to as a "stupid content tracker" because Git tracks content changes not file changes.
pjhyett 16y ago
SVN: file-based, delta-storage Git: content-based, snapshot-storage The systems are completely different.
- tzs 16y ago
  Yes, under the hood (although the distinction between file-based and content-based doesn't seem to be all the important from the conceptual model point of view--you generally access the content of blobs in Git via file-based interfaces). The point is he's talking about how the systems appear conceptually. Conceptually the model that best describes Subversion from a user point of view is a file system that stores a snapshot of all prior states of the filesystem.

duck 16y ago

Dup - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=726023 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=726023

Another1 16y ago

http://progit.org/book/ http://progit.org/book/

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

d0m 16y ago

I've read this book last summer to learn git and I pretty enjoyed it. Mainly because it's succinct and because the author does a wonderful job explaining why he really like git. However, I don't get why it's on HN front page...?

piers 16y ago

http://github.com/schacon/git-reference http://github.com/schacon/git-reference An HTML version(ish) of the book

ss3329 16y ago

Jordan Shoes. We wholesale shoes: Nike running shoes, Air Jordan, Clothing, Bag, Nike dunks, Air force ones and more.