3 ms·

Over the years I've come to the conclusion that all these UIs on top of Git make little sense. Git itself is already distributed, which goes beyond federation.

by imiric 2y ago

Over the years I've come to the conclusion that all these UIs on top of Git make little sense. Git itself is already distributed, which goes beyond federation. Exposing a Git repo over the network is trivial with HTTP or SSH. It supports code review workflows via email, though I really like the approach of storing reviews inside the repo itself via something like git-appraise[1]. Integrating it with CI/CD pipelines _can_ be simple, if the pipeline can be triggered by pushes. Instead we've created these centralized UIs over Git, and are trying to get them to integrate with one another. This seems backwards to me since Git is already decentralized. [1]: https://github.com/google/git-appraise https://github.com/google/git-appraise

KingMob 2y ago
I suspect the reason is the same as the use of local git GUIs and TUIs; git has a terrible CLI, so everyone uses its plumbing, but not its porcelain.
- lee_ars 2y ago
  Yeah, there's a reason why stuff like the git manpage generator (https://git-man-page-generator.lokaltog.net/ https://git-man-page-generator.lokaltog.net/) is funny, and it's because git's CLI doesn't have a learning curve. It has a learning brick wall that you smash your face into.
  - KingMob 2y ago
    Hehe. Yeah, I can't think of another tool that's simultaneously popular enough, and painful enough, to warrant a site like https://ohshitgit.com https://ohshitgit.com
    - HankB99 2y ago
      Perhaps there's a similar site for 'ffmpeg'. The link you posted looks pretty helpful. I guess my needs for "interesting" git operations are low because I've never felt the need to move beyond the CLI. (Mostly, that is. I do click the colored bars in VS Code to stage commits and then commit from the command line.) Occasionally I need to search for help when I screw something up. More often the solution is in the git warning message ("You need to 'git pull' before you can push" - paraphrasing.)
  - stavros 2y ago
    > the git manpage generator is funny It would be funny if I didn't mistake it for an actual git manpage.
acidburnNSA 2y ago
I needed something like this 16 years ago at work to manage shared code, tickets, and code review of private code across a team of engineers. Code review for formal quality assurance was the most important need. I started with trac, then Phabricator, then GitHub enterprise. I just checked out git appraise to see how my nuclear and mechanical engineer friends would like it, and from what I see, I'm guessing they would not. We were using eclipse back then so maybe if that eclipse UI plugin still works it could work.
yencabulator 2y ago
There's value in quickly browsing files of a project without needing to clone it first -- especially for quickly linking others to specific lines, API docs linking to implementation, etc. That needs to expose content at every commit, for stable links. So, some sort of a "web git viewer" is very useful. Unfortunately, the more minimal read-only ones have ended up with far worse UX than the Github clones, or are a scary tangle of shell scripts and/or C. :-( (Anyone want to collaborate on a Rust-based read-only git browsing web UI that aims for great usability? I'm all in, I want one. I know how to make it handle search etc, I'm not great at wrangling CSS to will or getting navigation right.)

by imiric 2y ago

KingMob 2y ago

I suspect the reason is the same as the use of local git GUIs and TUIs; git has a terrible CLI, so everyone uses its plumbing, but not its porcelain.

lee_ars 2y ago
Yeah, there's a reason why stuff like the git manpage generator (https://git-man-page-generator.lokaltog.net/ https://git-man-page-generator.lokaltog.net/) is funny, and it's because git's CLI doesn't have a learning curve. It has a learning brick wall that you smash your face into.
- KingMob 2y ago
  Hehe. Yeah, I can't think of another tool that's simultaneously popular enough, and painful enough, to warrant a site like https://ohshitgit.com https://ohshitgit.com
  - HankB99 2y ago
    Perhaps there's a similar site for 'ffmpeg'. The link you posted looks pretty helpful. I guess my needs for "interesting" git operations are low because I've never felt the need to move beyond the CLI. (Mostly, that is. I do click the colored bars in VS Code to stage commits and then commit from the command line.) Occasionally I need to search for help when I screw something up. More often the solution is in the git warning message ("You need to 'git pull' before you can push" - paraphrasing.)
- stavros 2y ago
  > the git manpage generator is funny It would be funny if I didn't mistake it for an actual git manpage.

acidburnNSA 2y ago

I needed something like this 16 years ago at work to manage shared code, tickets, and code review of private code across a team of engineers. Code review for formal quality assurance was the most important need. I started with trac, then Phabricator, then GitHub enterprise. I just checked out git appraise to see how my nuclear and mechanical engineer friends would like it, and from what I see, I'm guessing they would not. We were using eclipse back then so maybe if that eclipse UI plugin still works it could work.

yencabulator 2y ago

There's value in quickly browsing files of a project without needing to clone it first -- especially for quickly linking others to specific lines, API docs linking to implementation, etc. That needs to expose content at every commit, for stable links. So, some sort of a "web git viewer" is very useful. Unfortunately, the more minimal read-only ones have ended up with far worse UX than the Github clones, or are a scary tangle of shell scripts and/or C. :-( (Anyone want to collaborate on a Rust-based read-only git browsing web UI that aims for great usability? I'm all in, I want one. I know how to make it handle search etc, I'm not great at wrangling CSS to will or getting navigation right.)