Reading through the list of unix rules you linked, I find git reasonably obeys them. For example "Clarity is better than cleverness": Git provides a clear inte

Reading through the list of unix rules you linked, I find git reasonably obeys them. For example "Clarity is better than cleverness": Git provides a clear internal structure (Blob DAG). It does not try to provide clever merge algorithms, since "Buying a small increase in performance with a large increase in the complexity and obscurity of your technique is a bad trade". Or another example "Design programs to be connected with other programs". In contrast to Mercurial, many git commands are separate programs and it is trivial to implement your own in any language. Arguably git violates "In interface design, always do the least surprising thing", since it does not try to provide a comfy start for svn exiles.