4 ms·

Along what axis do you want the VCS to be "better" than git? For example, git's cli user interface is monstrous (yes, I know, you personally have 800 cli comma

by yodon 3y ago

Along what axis do you want the VCS to be "better" than git? For example, git's cli user interface is monstrous (yes, I know, you personally have 800 cli commands memorized and get them all right every time, that doesn't make it "good"). From the outset, the maintainers of git basically decided "it's too much work to make all the cli flags behave and interact consistently" so they didn't. This allowed git to grow fast, at the cost of the cli user experience. That said, git is big enough that multiple companies have come along and "solved" the git UI problem. None of these aftermarket UI layers are perfect, but there are enough of them and they are different enough that you can probably find one that is good enough for you, along whatever axis you personally dislike the git UI (examples include [0], [1], [2], which tackle very different user workflow problems). [0] https://git-fork.com/ https://git-fork.com/ [1] https://graphite.dev/ https://graphite.dev/ [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7565885 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7565885

briHass 3y ago
I generally don't hear too many complaints about GIT in the Windows/.NET development world, probably because there are good UI front ends and there's not as much 'tough guy' cred from sticking to the CLI. Visual Studio does a decent job of abstracting the GIT nuances, but I personally use GIT Extensions, which looks and feels much better on Windows than the other cross platform UIs. I drop to the CLI occasionally, especially for multi step or automated scripts, but you can pry a nice visual commit graph and full featured integrated diff viewer from my dead hands. GIT is powerful and option-laden; the perfect tool for a UI to aide in discoverability. The CLI feels like programming in a text editor vs a real IDE
- KronisLV 3y ago
  > Visual Studio does a decent job of abstracting the GIT nuances, but I personally use GIT Extensions, which looks and feels much better on Windows than the other cross platform UIs. IDEs and text editors sometimes have nice Git integrations in the UI, but I wanted standalone software that I can use for anything from various programming projects, to something like gamedev projects (with Git LFS) or arbitrary documents. In the end, I just forked over some money for GitKraken, it's pretty good, especially with multiple accounts on the same platforms, when you want to switch between them easily: https://www.gitkraken.com/ https://www.gitkraken.com/ There's also Sourcetree which I used before then, kind of sluggish but feature complete: https://www.sourcetreeapp.com/ https://www.sourcetreeapp.com/ For something more lightweight, I also enjoyed Git Cola on various OSes: https://git-cola.github.io/ https://git-cola.github.io/ Even Git documentation has a page on the software out there, a good deal of which is free and has good platform support: https://git-scm.com/downloads/guis https://git-scm.com/downloads/guis Quite frankly, I spend like 90% of the time using a GUI interface nowadays, when I want to easily merge things, or include very specific code blocks across multiple files in a commit, or handle most of the other common operations. Of course, sometimes there's a need to drop down to the CLI, but you're right that some GUI software feels like it actually improves the usability here.
- dudeinjapan 3y ago
  TortoiseGIT on Windows is killer. Hard for me to code without it.
- namtab00 3y ago
  I too am a fervent GitExtensions apostle. I really wish the 4.* release supported a dark theme, it's the only thing keeping me on the 3.* release, and I dread the day I'll have to switch for whatever reason...
- screye 3y ago
  Vs code + git graph + git lens is all you need for a happy git experience.
  - solardev 3y ago
    How does diffing and conflict resolution work?
    - jcparkyn 3y ago
      [Not the person you're replying to] Vscode has a built-in (and quite good) 3-way merge editor, and an excellent editable diff view. GitLens also makes it easy to diff any two refs within vscode.
      - solardev 3y ago
        Thanks!
  - LeBleu 3y ago
    This! Any graphical history for git that doesn't let you show all branches at once is trash. (Like the one in Visual Studio) The interactive rebase editor in Git Graph is very nice too. I also love how smoothly you can jump between git CLI and GUI in VS Code. I'll have to look at how to compare arbitrary commits in Git Lens and whether it is in the free version. That's the one thing I still rely upon TortoiseGit for
- 9dev 3y ago
  > there's not as much 'tough guy' cred from sticking to the CLI. That’s probably really all there is to these discussions, good old technocratic chauvinism :)

by yodon 3y ago

briHass 3y ago

I generally don't hear too many complaints about GIT in the Windows/.NET development world, probably because there are good UI front ends and there's not as much 'tough guy' cred from sticking to the CLI. Visual Studio does a decent job of abstracting the GIT nuances, but I personally use GIT Extensions, which looks and feels much better on Windows than the other cross platform UIs. I drop to the CLI occasionally, especially for multi step or automated scripts, but you can pry a nice visual commit graph and full featured integrated diff viewer from my dead hands. GIT is powerful and option-laden; the perfect tool for a UI to aide in discoverability. The CLI feels like programming in a text editor vs a real IDE

KronisLV 3y ago
> Visual Studio does a decent job of abstracting the GIT nuances, but I personally use GIT Extensions, which looks and feels much better on Windows than the other cross platform UIs. IDEs and text editors sometimes have nice Git integrations in the UI, but I wanted standalone software that I can use for anything from various programming projects, to something like gamedev projects (with Git LFS) or arbitrary documents. In the end, I just forked over some money for GitKraken, it's pretty good, especially with multiple accounts on the same platforms, when you want to switch between them easily: https://www.gitkraken.com/ https://www.gitkraken.com/ There's also Sourcetree which I used before then, kind of sluggish but feature complete: https://www.sourcetreeapp.com/ https://www.sourcetreeapp.com/ For something more lightweight, I also enjoyed Git Cola on various OSes: https://git-cola.github.io/ https://git-cola.github.io/ Even Git documentation has a page on the software out there, a good deal of which is free and has good platform support: https://git-scm.com/downloads/guis https://git-scm.com/downloads/guis Quite frankly, I spend like 90% of the time using a GUI interface nowadays, when I want to easily merge things, or include very specific code blocks across multiple files in a commit, or handle most of the other common operations. Of course, sometimes there's a need to drop down to the CLI, but you're right that some GUI software feels like it actually improves the usability here.
dudeinjapan 3y ago
TortoiseGIT on Windows is killer. Hard for me to code without it.
namtab00 3y ago
I too am a fervent GitExtensions apostle. I really wish the 4.* release supported a dark theme, it's the only thing keeping me on the 3.* release, and I dread the day I'll have to switch for whatever reason...
screye 3y ago
Vs code + git graph + git lens is all you need for a happy git experience.
- solardev 3y ago
  How does diffing and conflict resolution work?
  - jcparkyn 3y ago
    [Not the person you're replying to] Vscode has a built-in (and quite good) 3-way merge editor, and an excellent editable diff view. GitLens also makes it easy to diff any two refs within vscode.
    - solardev 3y ago
      Thanks!
- LeBleu 3y ago
  This! Any graphical history for git that doesn't let you show all branches at once is trash. (Like the one in Visual Studio) The interactive rebase editor in Git Graph is very nice too. I also love how smoothly you can jump between git CLI and GUI in VS Code. I'll have to look at how to compare arbitrary commits in Git Lens and whether it is in the free version. That's the one thing I still rely upon TortoiseGit for
9dev 3y ago
> there's not as much 'tough guy' cred from sticking to the CLI. That’s probably really all there is to these discussions, good old technocratic chauvinism :)