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Git alternative command line interfaces just make no sense 1. If you want to do something advanced, it will be a lot easier to find help online using regular/o

Git alternative command line interfaces just make no sense 1. If you want to do something advanced, it will be a lot easier to find help online using regular/original git commands 2. You still need to learn this new interface , so you will end up learning too different command line interfaces (one for the easy stuff and one for the advanced stuff) 3. You will surely, almost certainly mix the two interfaces Use and learn git "original" commands to do advanced stuff Use a nice UI for the easy straightforward stuff The only alt command line interface I might consider is magit, because it mixed the emacs commands with GUI elements, and still i think magit is not all that because its not GUI enough, if magit becomes faster and more graphical, only then it might make more sense (for now its really only for emacs hardcore users)

iudqnolq 4y ago
I'd also plug lazygit. I didn't grow up with line editors. When the state has multiple lines I'd rather see it all at once in a window rather than peek at bits and then have to remember the context in my head. Lazygit is roughly similar to magit but it's written in go so it starts quicker if you don't already live in emacs.
mdgrech23 4y ago
Yea I want to like this but I can't. This is one area where in a lot of ways we're lucky. Git is pretty standard tool across the board. Learn it once cry once? I would also add you can probably learn 90% of what you need to do on a day to day basis in a day or two. Sure there's more oddball stuff but sometimes it's easier to just do it the brute force way e.g. reset everything and manually change shit to how you want it.
- thfuran 4y ago
  More like learn it once, cry forever. I will never not be irritated that push and pull aren't really opposite in git, and that's hardly its worst wart.
stef25 4y ago
> Git alternative command line interfaces just make no sense Couldn't you say the same for wrappers around an API ?
- systems 4y ago
  I would say it depends Git is very popular, there is ton of resources online on how to use it and learn it, and a lot of UI tools if you dont want to learn the cli at all I would say if an API is as popular as Git, a wrapper would be a very hard sell But if the API is considered old, legacy, or not very popular, then maybe a wrapper make sense, but then this would still be a niche case, if the API the is not used much, the wrapper would be used even less
IshKebab 4y ago
I agree. The Git CLI and terminology is awful, but it's the one that everyone uses. If you make a better unofficial interface you'll just make it harder because now you need to know both systems and can only search for one. The only solution is for Git itself to fix it, but that's very unlikely. We did get `git switch` but that's it. They'll never rename "the index" to something sensible (e.g. "draft") or make a sane way to delete remote branches. I recommend just learning with a GUI (Git Extensions is good) so you don't have to deal with the abysmal CLI UX until you at least understand the DAG.
scns 4y ago
Someone here on HN wrote once that he uses Intellij for it's Git interface. Idea and PyCharm Community editions are free. Worth checking out IMHO. I use Intellij, but can totally understand if it is not evereyones' cup of tea.

iudqnolq 4y ago

I'd also plug lazygit. I didn't grow up with line editors. When the state has multiple lines I'd rather see it all at once in a window rather than peek at bits and then have to remember the context in my head. Lazygit is roughly similar to magit but it's written in go so it starts quicker if you don't already live in emacs.

mdgrech23 4y ago

Yea I want to like this but I can't. This is one area where in a lot of ways we're lucky. Git is pretty standard tool across the board. Learn it once cry once? I would also add you can probably learn 90% of what you need to do on a day to day basis in a day or two. Sure there's more oddball stuff but sometimes it's easier to just do it the brute force way e.g. reset everything and manually change shit to how you want it.

thfuran 4y ago
More like learn it once, cry forever. I will never not be irritated that push and pull aren't really opposite in git, and that's hardly its worst wart.

stef25 4y ago

> Git alternative command line interfaces just make no sense Couldn't you say the same for wrappers around an API ?

systems 4y ago
I would say it depends Git is very popular, there is ton of resources online on how to use it and learn it, and a lot of UI tools if you dont want to learn the cli at all I would say if an API is as popular as Git, a wrapper would be a very hard sell But if the API is considered old, legacy, or not very popular, then maybe a wrapper make sense, but then this would still be a niche case, if the API the is not used much, the wrapper would be used even less

IshKebab 4y ago

I agree. The Git CLI and terminology is awful, but it's the one that everyone uses. If you make a better unofficial interface you'll just make it harder because now you need to know both systems and can only search for one. The only solution is for Git itself to fix it, but that's very unlikely. We did get `git switch` but that's it. They'll never rename "the index" to something sensible (e.g. "draft") or make a sane way to delete remote branches. I recommend just learning with a GUI (Git Extensions is good) so you don't have to deal with the abysmal CLI UX until you at least understand the DAG.

scns 4y ago

Someone here on HN wrote once that he uses Intellij for it's Git interface. Idea and PyCharm Community editions are free. Worth checking out IMHO. I use Intellij, but can totally understand if it is not evereyones' cup of tea.