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"When I want to see what has been happening on SQLite, I visit the timeline and in a single screen I see a summary of the latest changes, on all branches. In a

"When I want to see what has been happening on SQLite, I visit the timeline and in a single screen I see a summary of the latest changes, on all branches. In a few clicks, I can drill down as much detail as I want. I can even do this from a phone. GitHub and GitLab offer nothing comparable. The closest I have found is the network, which is slow to render (unless it is already cached), does not offer nearly as much details, and scarcely works at all on mobile." This is a valid point. I've always wondered why it seems Github goes out of its way to hide the typical commit tree navigation that so many git clients support (Sourcetree, gitk, tortoisegit, etc).

bullfightonmars 5y ago
I have definitely felt this pain when navigating i to the past to investigate the origin and evolution of changes.
monkeybutton 5y ago
Yes! I find it odd. Maybe they just expect you to use one of those clients if that's what you want to see?
- loudthing 5y ago
  That is a good point. I know now when I visit a project on Github that I am seeing the latest version of all files, but that is only because I'm already aware of how git works.
  - bostonvaulter2 5y ago
    Depending on what the default branch in GitHub is set to you might not be viewing the "latest" version of the files. i.e. the default branch is `main` but all development happens on a long-lived `dev` branch that is only merged into `main` once a month.
  - kazinator 5y ago
    Someone who doesn't know what version control is will also just assume they are seeing the one and only version of the files.
ittan 5y ago
It is because the features on github.com directly correlate to a git feature.
- rezonant 5y ago
  Curious: What git feature does Network mirror then?
  - auxym 5y ago
    git log?
    - rezonant 5y ago
      Hmm, GitHub Network is much more than log. I think "GitHub Commits" page mirrors git log.
      - Ajedi32 5y ago
        Network is more like `git log --graph --decorate --oneline`. Still git log, just in a slightly different format.
        rezonant 5y ago
        `git log --graph --decorate --oneline` is specific to a branch of a repository. Github Network shows the relationship between forks. It is similar but really the question answered by it is "what and where is the work being done" and "what is the relationship between work being done and this repository I'm looking at". It sucks that Network is buried, I think it should be much more accessible. Eg https://github.com/sindresorhus/delay/network https://github.com/sindresorhus/delay/network tells me that this work is being maintained actively, but most forks are not merging back. Another one might tell me work on the main fork is stalled, and many users are now doing PRs against a fork of the original.
        5y ago
kazinator 5y ago
If SQLite used Git, they could self-host a more reasonable web view of the repository using GitView or CGIT. > why it seems Github goes out of its way to hide the typical commit tree navigation Wild guess: because those kinds of features requires the back end to execute Git implementation code which can invoke some pretty expensive cases. Imagine that across thousands and thousands of repositories being accessed at once. They want to steer the user toward doing a clone and doing their own in-depth drilling on the copy. CGIT caches for better performance; but caches require extra storage and some sure-fire expiry mechanism so it doesn't grow and grow. Caching things for internet rando visitors doesn't seem like a good idea.
- cma 5y ago
  > because those kinds of features requires the back end to execute Git implementation code which can invoke some pretty expensive cases Github has the blame view of files, which is much more expensive.
  - tapan_jk 5y ago
    An ex colleague uses GitHub Enterprise at work, and he reports running into some issues that are never seen on GitHub proper. Most notably, network view of repos and GitHub pages experience extended downtime. Wonder how GitHub manages the uptime of these features for millions of repos because I never see these fail there.
    - clhodapp 5y ago
      I will note that some features actually don't seem to scale reliably on GitHub proper. For example, the profile pages of prodigious commiters tend to time out on. As an example of one that pretty much always does it, check out https://github.com/scala-steward https://github.com/scala-steward (not on mobile).
- mro_name 5y ago
  > Imagine that across thousands and thousands of repositories being accessed at once. Not the idea of a decentralised system, is it?
tshaddox 5y ago
At some point in the last year I stopped being able to find the “search for a file” function on GitHub’s mobile site. On the desktop website you can hit “t” from a repo page to quickly search for a file by filename. The mobile website used to have a button labeled “Jump to file” or similar, but now I can’t find that functionality anywhere.

bullfightonmars 5y ago

I have definitely felt this pain when navigating i to the past to investigate the origin and evolution of changes.

monkeybutton 5y ago

Yes! I find it odd. Maybe they just expect you to use one of those clients if that's what you want to see?

loudthing 5y ago
That is a good point. I know now when I visit a project on Github that I am seeing the latest version of all files, but that is only because I'm already aware of how git works.
- bostonvaulter2 5y ago
  Depending on what the default branch in GitHub is set to you might not be viewing the "latest" version of the files. i.e. the default branch is `main` but all development happens on a long-lived `dev` branch that is only merged into `main` once a month.
- kazinator 5y ago
  Someone who doesn't know what version control is will also just assume they are seeing the one and only version of the files.

ittan 5y ago

It is because the features on github.com directly correlate to a git feature.

rezonant 5y ago
Curious: What git feature does Network mirror then?
- auxym 5y ago
  git log?
  - rezonant 5y ago
    Hmm, GitHub Network is much more than log. I think "GitHub Commits" page mirrors git log.
    - Ajedi32 5y ago
      Network is more like `git log --graph --decorate --oneline`. Still git log, just in a slightly different format.
      - rezonant 5y ago
        `git log --graph --decorate --oneline` is specific to a branch of a repository. Github Network shows the relationship between forks. It is similar but really the question answered by it is "what and where is the work being done" and "what is the relationship between work being done and this repository I'm looking at". It sucks that Network is buried, I think it should be much more accessible. Eg https://github.com/sindresorhus/delay/network https://github.com/sindresorhus/delay/network tells me that this work is being maintained actively, but most forks are not merging back. Another one might tell me work on the main fork is stalled, and many users are now doing PRs against a fork of the original.
        5y ago

kazinator 5y ago

If SQLite used Git, they could self-host a more reasonable web view of the repository using GitView or CGIT. > why it seems Github goes out of its way to hide the typical commit tree navigation Wild guess: because those kinds of features requires the back end to execute Git implementation code which can invoke some pretty expensive cases. Imagine that across thousands and thousands of repositories being accessed at once. They want to steer the user toward doing a clone and doing their own in-depth drilling on the copy. CGIT caches for better performance; but caches require extra storage and some sure-fire expiry mechanism so it doesn't grow and grow. Caching things for internet rando visitors doesn't seem like a good idea.

cma 5y ago
> because those kinds of features requires the back end to execute Git implementation code which can invoke some pretty expensive cases Github has the blame view of files, which is much more expensive.
- tapan_jk 5y ago
  An ex colleague uses GitHub Enterprise at work, and he reports running into some issues that are never seen on GitHub proper. Most notably, network view of repos and GitHub pages experience extended downtime. Wonder how GitHub manages the uptime of these features for millions of repos because I never see these fail there.
  - clhodapp 5y ago
    I will note that some features actually don't seem to scale reliably on GitHub proper. For example, the profile pages of prodigious commiters tend to time out on. As an example of one that pretty much always does it, check out https://github.com/scala-steward https://github.com/scala-steward (not on mobile).
mro_name 5y ago
> Imagine that across thousands and thousands of repositories being accessed at once. Not the idea of a decentralised system, is it?

tshaddox 5y ago

At some point in the last year I stopped being able to find the “search for a file” function on GitHub’s mobile site. On the desktop website you can hit “t” from a repo page to quickly search for a file by filename. The mobile website used to have a button labeled “Jump to file” or similar, but now I can’t find that functionality anywhere.