6 ms·

Git for Computer Scientists

103 points by humanfromearth 15y ago

RusAlexander 15y ago
awesome
javert 15y ago
The best Git explanation I've seen is "Understanding Git Conceptually" [1]. [1] http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~cduan/technical/git/ http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~cduan/technical/git/
- apsurd 15y ago
  Just read a little of the above link. Personally I think http://progit.org/ http://progit.org/ does a better job of a conceptual walk-through while at the same time giving you exactly what you need to get started tracking your projects. It also explains the different types of suggested collaboration strategies in a way that you think "ah that makes sense". Personal thanks to Scott Chacon if he's reading =)
- dave1010uk 15y ago
  My favourite one is The Git Parable. It walks you through the steps you'd take to make you're own DCVS. Once you understand this, reading the man pages makes a lot more sense. http://tom.preston-werner.com/2009/05/19/the-git-parable.html http://tom.preston-werner.com/2009/05/19/the-git-parable.htm...
ximeng 15y ago
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1485612 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1485612 - some comments http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=441670 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=441670 - a link to this amongst other Git stuff from 3 years ago
dbbo 15y ago
This link is also on http://git-scm.com/documentation http://git-scm.com/documentation
politician 15y ago
Conceptually, git is simple and elegant. The porcelain, however, is incoherent and riddled with special cases. This makes it a hard sell to businesses and developers who struggle to understand that version control is a process, not a button. So, articles like "Git for CS" are great and all, I guess, but what I'd really like to see is an article on "Git for junior Windows developers" or "Git for Your Boss" or "The case for git: delivering business value in IT" or "git vs TFS: how not to cripple your development team" or "git: because you don't just need to know how to program in language X, Y or Z".
- masklinn 15y ago
  > The porcelain, however, is incoherent and riddled with special cases. Eyup. Mercurial's UI sitting directly on top of Git's storage backend (replacing hg's own storage by git's) is an idea I've been wondering about for quite some time.
  - callahad 15y ago
    At that point, why not just use Mercurial? What advantages does the git storage format give you?
    - masklinn 15y ago
      Git-using colleagues mainly, who may need to work on your machine for one reason or another (imagine git as the standard SCM and pair-programming, your using a different "porcelain" only works as long as your colleagues can keep using the standardized tool). It'd also feel a bit less hack-ish than my current hg-git setup, and it would probably work correctly with http git repositories (I believe hg-git will support them once Dulwich 0.8.1 is released[0], but I've no idea if — and when — that'll happen, not to mention the issue will rise its ugly head again if git adds more protocols in the future) [0] https://bitbucket.org/durin42/hg-git/issue/1/http-cloning https://bitbucket.org/durin42/hg-git/issue/1/http-cloning
- civilian 15y ago
  "Git for your boss" would be great, because I am terrified every time my boss uses git.
kclittle 15y ago
Dense. Concise. Informative. Like!
keyist 15y ago
This is a great post that gets mentioned from time to time and covers the underlying theory well. I'd supplement it with Chapter 9 of the Pro Git book: http://progit.org/book/ch9-0.html http://progit.org/book/ch9-0.html , which focuses more on the actual implementation and shows how to create commits from scratch using Git's content-addressable primitives.

103 points by humanfromearth 15y ago

awesome

The best Git explanation I've seen is "Understanding Git Conceptually" [1]. [1] http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~cduan/technical/git/ http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~cduan/technical/git/

apsurd 15y ago
Just read a little of the above link. Personally I think http://progit.org/ http://progit.org/ does a better job of a conceptual walk-through while at the same time giving you exactly what you need to get started tracking your projects. It also explains the different types of suggested collaboration strategies in a way that you think "ah that makes sense". Personal thanks to Scott Chacon if he's reading =)
dave1010uk 15y ago
My favourite one is The Git Parable. It walks you through the steps you'd take to make you're own DCVS. Once you understand this, reading the man pages makes a lot more sense. http://tom.preston-werner.com/2009/05/19/the-git-parable.html http://tom.preston-werner.com/2009/05/19/the-git-parable.htm...

ximeng 15y ago

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1485612 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1485612 - some comments http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=441670 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=441670 - a link to this amongst other Git stuff from 3 years ago

dbbo 15y ago

This link is also on http://git-scm.com/documentation http://git-scm.com/documentation

politician 15y ago

Conceptually, git is simple and elegant. The porcelain, however, is incoherent and riddled with special cases. This makes it a hard sell to businesses and developers who struggle to understand that version control is a process, not a button. So, articles like "Git for CS" are great and all, I guess, but what I'd really like to see is an article on "Git for junior Windows developers" or "Git for Your Boss" or "The case for git: delivering business value in IT" or "git vs TFS: how not to cripple your development team" or "git: because you don't just need to know how to program in language X, Y or Z".

masklinn 15y ago
> The porcelain, however, is incoherent and riddled with special cases. Eyup. Mercurial's UI sitting directly on top of Git's storage backend (replacing hg's own storage by git's) is an idea I've been wondering about for quite some time.
- callahad 15y ago
  At that point, why not just use Mercurial? What advantages does the git storage format give you?
  - masklinn 15y ago
    Git-using colleagues mainly, who may need to work on your machine for one reason or another (imagine git as the standard SCM and pair-programming, your using a different "porcelain" only works as long as your colleagues can keep using the standardized tool). It'd also feel a bit less hack-ish than my current hg-git setup, and it would probably work correctly with http git repositories (I believe hg-git will support them once Dulwich 0.8.1 is released[0], but I've no idea if — and when — that'll happen, not to mention the issue will rise its ugly head again if git adds more protocols in the future) [0] https://bitbucket.org/durin42/hg-git/issue/1/http-cloning https://bitbucket.org/durin42/hg-git/issue/1/http-cloning
civilian 15y ago
"Git for your boss" would be great, because I am terrified every time my boss uses git.

kclittle 15y ago

Dense. Concise. Informative. Like!

keyist 15y ago

This is a great post that gets mentioned from time to time and covers the underlying theory well. I'd supplement it with Chapter 9 of the Pro Git book: http://progit.org/book/ch9-0.html http://progit.org/book/ch9-0.html , which focuses more on the actual implementation and shows how to create commits from scratch using Git's content-addressable primitives.