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I ran across this little gem recently: > Git gets easier once you get the basic idea that branches are homeomorphic endofunctors mapping submanifolds of a Hilb

I ran across this little gem recently: > Git gets easier once you get the basic idea that branches are homeomorphic endofunctors mapping submanifolds of a Hilbert space. * Isaac Wolkerstorfer, https://twitter.com/agnoster/status/44636629423497217 https://twitter.com/agnoster/status/44636629423497217

beermonster 5y ago
See also this https://git-man-page-generator.lokaltog.net/ https://git-man-page-generator.lokaltog.net/
- JJMcJ 5y ago
  Reads like the man page for "git rebase".
question000 5y ago
Richard Feynman had a joke theory that any purely theoretical mathematical concept when expressed in layman's terms devolves into something completely obvious. So does this actually mean something like "git uses branches."?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
mhh__ 5y ago
Is that maths soup or a real construct? I can't join the dots but I'm also studying physics so category theory is still slightly Greek to me (I can feel the mathematicians' noses rising already...)
- magnio 5y ago
  It's a joke. A well-discussed one. https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/256450/are-git-branches-in-fact-homeomorphic-endofunctors-mapping-submanifolds-of-a https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/2564... https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/675092/does-this-statement-about-hilbert-spaces-make-any-sense https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/675092/does-this-st... https://cs.stackexchange.com/questions/12652/is-there-a-formal-cs-definition-of-vcs-and-file-versions https://cs.stackexchange.com/questions/12652/is-there-a-form...
  - inshadows 5y ago
    tl;dr it's a random math soup (from first link)
- z77dj3kl 5y ago
  It's random math words put together and doesn't make sense even in isolation.
  - JJMcJ 5y ago
    Or else it's research that won a Fields Medal. There is no middle ground.
jeltz 5y ago
I have never got all these jokes. When my job switched from Subversion to git it took me about one week plus reading a couple of articles to become more productive in git than I ever was in Subversion. Yes, version control is a bit tricky but git is not that hard to understand and was much easier than contemporary Subversion versions.
- avalys 5y ago
  Things have gotten a little better. But, try to do something off the beaten path in Git, and you may ultimately get the joke. For example: “two weeks ago an intern accidentally committed a file containing IP we’re not allowed to use, we need to erase it from the repository and all developer machines.” Have fun with that one! EDIT: I mean, try to figure this out from the official Git documentation (https://git-scm.com/docs https://git-scm.com/docs). No, Stack Overflow and Github are not the official Git documentation. Believe it or not, the idea that "Git is hard to use" predates Stack Overflow.
  - onei 5y ago
    Erase from the repo, a little non-standard, but fine. Being asked to remove it from all developer machines sounds like someone misunderstood how version control works. Was that a real life example you hit?
    - karatinversion 5y ago
      They might have a model of version control in their head that predates distributed version control systems - I never used one myself, but the code base I work on still has scars here and there from the era when only one developer could have any single file checked out.
    - avalys 5y ago
      Git clones the entire remote repository to each developer's machine. So, if you accidentally committed something you shouldn't have two weeks ago, everyone will now have a copy in their local repo. And you can't always just tell people to delete their local repos and start again, since they might have local branches they're working on, etc.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
SmellTheGlove 5y ago
Is this a joke or serious? I don’t understand enough of the words after “branches” to know. I’m serious btw.
- stu2b50 5y ago
  It's a parody/derivation from the monad joke, where one explanation for a monad is that they're "just an monoid in the category of endofunctors".
  - SmellTheGlove 5y ago
    HN makes me realize I don't know enough words.
twic 5y ago
A sparse Hilbert space. Beginners make that mistake a lot.

beermonster 5y ago

See also this https://git-man-page-generator.lokaltog.net/ https://git-man-page-generator.lokaltog.net/

JJMcJ 5y ago
Reads like the man page for "git rebase".

question000 5y ago

Richard Feynman had a joke theory that any purely theoretical mathematical concept when expressed in layman's terms devolves into something completely obvious. So does this actually mean something like "git uses branches."?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

mhh__ 5y ago

Is that maths soup or a real construct? I can't join the dots but I'm also studying physics so category theory is still slightly Greek to me (I can feel the mathematicians' noses rising already...)

magnio 5y ago
It's a joke. A well-discussed one. https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/256450/are-git-branches-in-fact-homeomorphic-endofunctors-mapping-submanifolds-of-a https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/2564... https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/675092/does-this-statement-about-hilbert-spaces-make-any-sense https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/675092/does-this-st... https://cs.stackexchange.com/questions/12652/is-there-a-formal-cs-definition-of-vcs-and-file-versions https://cs.stackexchange.com/questions/12652/is-there-a-form...
- inshadows 5y ago
  tl;dr it's a random math soup (from first link)
z77dj3kl 5y ago
It's random math words put together and doesn't make sense even in isolation.
- JJMcJ 5y ago
  Or else it's research that won a Fields Medal. There is no middle ground.

jeltz 5y ago

I have never got all these jokes. When my job switched from Subversion to git it took me about one week plus reading a couple of articles to become more productive in git than I ever was in Subversion. Yes, version control is a bit tricky but git is not that hard to understand and was much easier than contemporary Subversion versions.

avalys 5y ago
Things have gotten a little better. But, try to do something off the beaten path in Git, and you may ultimately get the joke. For example: “two weeks ago an intern accidentally committed a file containing IP we’re not allowed to use, we need to erase it from the repository and all developer machines.” Have fun with that one! EDIT: I mean, try to figure this out from the official Git documentation (https://git-scm.com/docs https://git-scm.com/docs). No, Stack Overflow and Github are not the official Git documentation. Believe it or not, the idea that "Git is hard to use" predates Stack Overflow.
- onei 5y ago
  Erase from the repo, a little non-standard, but fine. Being asked to remove it from all developer machines sounds like someone misunderstood how version control works. Was that a real life example you hit?
  - karatinversion 5y ago
    They might have a model of version control in their head that predates distributed version control systems - I never used one myself, but the code base I work on still has scars here and there from the era when only one developer could have any single file checked out.
  - avalys 5y ago
    Git clones the entire remote repository to each developer's machine. So, if you accidentally committed something you shouldn't have two weeks ago, everyone will now have a copy in their local repo. And you can't always just tell people to delete their local repos and start again, since they might have local branches they're working on, etc.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

SmellTheGlove 5y ago

Is this a joke or serious? I don’t understand enough of the words after “branches” to know. I’m serious btw.

stu2b50 5y ago
It's a parody/derivation from the monad joke, where one explanation for a monad is that they're "just an monoid in the category of endofunctors".
- SmellTheGlove 5y ago
  HN makes me realize I don't know enough words.

twic 5y ago

A sparse Hilbert space. Beginners make that mistake a lot.